Drunken driver gets 29 years for killing sisters
STUART – A Jupiter man who caused a fiery, wrongway crash in 2015 that killed two sisters driving to Broward County on Interstate 95 has been sentenced to 29 years, with credit for time served.
Admerson Cleber Eugenio Vicente-Vicente had a blood-alcohol level about twice the legal limit when he drove head-on into the women, who were heading to their mother’s home in Pompano Beach after a trip to Universal Studios.
Vicente-Vicente, 26, appeared before a judge in Martin County on Thursday to face six charges. Four of
the charges were dismissed for being repetitive. He pleaded no contest to two DUI manslaughter charges.
“I know I have caused much pain,” Vicente-Vicente told Judge Lawrence Mirman through an interpreter. “I want to beg [the family] to forgive me. How many times I wake up asking why did they die and not I?” Killed were: Alexis Musumeci, 24, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant, who most recently served in England. She had just signed up for a tour in South Korea, which she hoped would land her a coveted assignment in Japan.
Her sister Brittany Musumeci, 23, a violinist who had graduated four months before the crash with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She was her school’s homecoming queen and was headed to South Korea to be close to her sister. She planned to teach both English and violin there.
Vicente-Vicente wasn’t supposed to be behind the wheel of a car until 2020 because he was a “habitual traffic offender,” according to the Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles.
He was charged with DUI in 2010 and twice accused of driving with a suspended license in 2014. Records show that by March 2015, Vicente-Vicente’s license had been revoked for five years.
Vicente-Vicente, a citizen of Guatemala, will be deported after his prison term.
“He’s facing [removal] proceedings,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said last week.
In two separate blood draws, Vicente-Vicente had a blood-alcohol level of .169 and .170 — above Florida’s legal level of .08 — during the Sept. 26, 2015, crash, which happened southwest of Stuart, according to the arrest warrant.
Prosecutors said Thursday he also tested positive for drugs.
Vicente-Vicente’s brother, Lazaro Vicente-Vicente, asked the judge for mercy, saying their father was in Guatemala and was an alcoholic.
“I want the judge to be compassionate to my brother,” he said. “He didn’t do it on purpose.”
Vicente-Vicente could have been sentenced to 30 years — 15 years for each woman — but because he made an open plea in court, eliminating a jury trial, the judge said he should receive an incentive.
However, he called Vicente-Vicente’s decision to drink and drive “stupid behavior. All it takes is one idiot to throw a rock in a pond and all the geniuses in the world cannot stop the ripple.”
Mirman said he was glad Vicente-Vicente apologized to the family and that he hoped “perhaps as they go through their life and attempt to put this behind them, maybe that will assist them.”
Vicente-Vicente was going north in the inside southbound lane when the cars collided, investigators said.
The women’s 2007 Toyota Matrix was struck by Vicente-Vicente’s 2006 Jeep Cherokee about 9 p.m. His vehicle came to rest on top of the hood of the Toyota after a fiery impact.
Drivers were calling 911 to report that a red Jeep was swerving in and out of lanes and then the calls stopped, said prosecutor Marcus Johnson.
Both sisters died at the scene and had to be identified with dental records. Vicente-Vicente was critically injured.
The women’s mother, Martha Canizares, said Alexis Musumeci texted about 8 p.m. to tell her they were on their way home. When Canizares later tried checking on them, the call went to voicemail. She texted and got nothing.
At midnight, there was a knock from the Florida Highway Patrol.
It was “despair I didn’t know was possible,” she said. “I wailed, I cried. This had to be a dream, this had to be a mistake.”
The women’s older sister said she now requires medication to make it through the day and has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
“I lost a part of myself when I lost Alexis and Brittany,” said Bianca Alvarez, who lives in Milwaukee, where the three sisters grew up.