Dad charged in DWI crash that killed son
A father killed his 8-year-old son in a drunken-driving crash in Queens, then refused to surrender to police, forcing cops to track him down in Yonkers, prosecutors charged Thursday.
A lawyer for Victor Mitchell, 34, suggested he fell asleep at the wheel — and that it wasn’t drinking that caused his little boy’s death — comparing the crash to when a parent accidentally runs over a child in a driveway. Mitchell had nearly 11⁄ times the
2 legal limit of booze in his system when his Honda Acura slammed into a telephone pole in Far Rockaway around 6:50 a.m. Aug. 16, prosecutors say.
His young son Sincere was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery to repair a tear in his heart. The boy spent five days on a ventilator before being removed from life support Aug. 21 after doctors determined he was brain dead, authorities say.
A breathalyzer test showed Mitchell’s blood alcohol content was 0.118% after he crashed; a drug test was positive for THC, the main psychoactive compound found in cannabis, prosecutors say.
Mitchell, who authorities say lives in Albany, was arrested Thursday morning in Yonkers. He was hit with a slew of charges including vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and aggravated DWI.
An NYPD detective contacted Mitchell the day after Sincere was taken off life support, informing him that he was wanted and needed to turn himself in, assistant district attorney Shawn Clark said at Mitchell’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday.
Mitchell responded he’d try to get a ride that day.
His lawyer, Garnett Sullivan, said on the day of the accident, Mitchell was on his way to a memorial service and dozed off at the wheel.
“He was driving from Westchester to Queens or Long Island and it was there when the accident happened,” Sullivan said. “He attributes the crash to falling asleep, and while alcohol or marijuana was found in his system, its hard to say alcohol is what caused the crash.”
If convicted, Mitchell faces a maximumsentenceof25yearsinprison.He was ordered held without bail until a hearing next week.