Ariel’s ma: No parole
Don’t free man who mowed down my girl, she tells panel
THE MOTHER of a 4-year-old girl who died after being mowed down by a heartless teen spent her daughter’s birthday trying to prevent the unthinkable — an early release for the driver.
Time has stood still for Sofia Russo in the four years since her daughter Ariel (photo inset) was struck and killed in Manhattan by a hellion on wheels in a crash that nearly killed the girl’s grandmother.
Driver Franklin Reyes received a sentence of three to nine years for manslaughter and he’s eligible for parole in August.
But he won’t be going anywhere if Russo has anything to say about it.
“My worst nightmare came true,” Russo said in a letter she read to the parole board, which will hear from Reyes next month. “I lost my child. It goes against nature, because parents are not supposed to outlive their children, but this is my reality.”
Ariel and her grandmother Katie Gutierrez, were walking along W. 97th St. near Amsterdam Ave. around 8:15 a.m. on June 4, 2013, when a 2000 Nissan Frontier driven by Reyes, who was 17 at the time, barreled into them.
Ariel was on her way to her pre-kindergarten class. Reyes was driving his parents’ SUV without their permission. The vehicle hit little Ariel, pinning her against a restaurant’s security shutters.
The teen, who only had a learner’s permit, then threw the Nissan into reverse, ran over Gutierrez and hit a parked car.
“This mother is speaking from the heart, as painful as it is for her,” said her attorney, Sanford Rubenstein. “It is hoped the board will take her words very seriously in making their decision.”
Russo said her mother was in the hospital for a month and is still not able to return to work. “Today is Ariel’s birthday,” Russo said. “If she were here, she would be turning 8 years old. We would be having dinner, a movie and cake today, and then we’d have her big birthday party tomorrow with our family and friends. Her hair would be so long. She would be so tall. I can only imagine these things because she is gone and we are empty and scarred.”
Russo said Ariel’s death was hardest on her son, Jacob.
“He was 3 years old when one day, his sister and best friend, Ariel, went to school but never came back home,” Russo said.
“I had to tell him that Ariel passed away and went to heaven but, he didn’t understand, he didn’t believe me. Every day he looked for her under the table, in the closets, under the bed, behind the couch, insisting that she was probably just hiding because she liked to play hide and seek. On his birthday, his one wish was for Ariel to come to his birthday party.”
While out on bail, Reyes was busted again in Washington Heights for driving without a license.
When he was pulled over by cops, he slammed on the gas and dragged an officer 100 feet.