MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Hempstead man pleaded guilty on Friday to manslaughter charges connected to a September 2013 crash in which the defendant’s girlfriend and four-year old son were killed.
Renen Vides, 30, of Hempstead, pleaded guilty in front of Judge Philip Grella, to two counts of manslaughter in the 2nd degree (a class C felony). The defendant is due back in court on October 19 for sentencing. The NCDA is recommending a sentence of three to nine years in prison.
“Renen Vides was driving without a license and against the advice of medical professionals when he crashed and killed his girlfriend and son,” DA Singas said. “The defendant was experiencing escalating seizures, yet was not taking his medication at the time of crash. This defendant made the conscious decision to disregard the risk he posed to everyone on that busy Nassau road and his family paid the price. It is reprehensible that he was driving again at the time he was apprehended on the arrest warrant.”
DA Singas said that on September 29, 2013, at approximately 11:55 a.m., Vides, an unlicensed driver, was driving his 2003 Mitsubishi Galant eastbound on Old Country Road in front of the Source Mall in Westbury when he veered off the road and struck a tree. His girlfriend, Martha Candida Hernandez Majano, was in the passenger seat, and his son Renen Vides Jr., four years old, was in the rear in a child seat. Both passengers died at the scene due to injuries sustained from impact.
The defendant stated that he felt chest pain and lost consciousness prior to the crash then regained consciousness when medical personnel arrived.
Vides, who has a history of seizure activity, was having seizures in the months leading up to the incident, and was instructed not to drive by medical personnel. He was also prescribed seizure medication, which he was not taking.
A Nassau County Grand Jury indicted Vides on March 30, 2015, after a lengthy and complicated investigation.
Vides was pulled over on August 14, 2015, by Garden City police officers for operating a car without a front plate. An investigation revealed that the defendant had an open arrest warrant for the March indictment.
Assistant District Attorney Stefanie Palma of DA Singas’ Vehicular Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case. Vides is represented by Robert Schalk, Esq.