Police: Passenger in fatal crash asked driver to slow down

STAMFORD — Shortly before Jerry Diaz crashed his blue Nissan Altima into a Canal Street telephone pole early in the morning of Aug. 26, killing two friends, another passenger told Diaz he was driving too recklessly that night and she wanted to take an Uber home.

When the passenger, Erica Stephens, had the conversation with Diaz, they were at McDonald’s on East Main Street, and Nishawn Tolliver, 18, and KyMani AntoinePollack, 19, were still alive.

Diaz, 18, told Stephens, 19, he would take it easy, and she agreed to be taken home by him, according to a conversation she had with an officer as she was being taken to Stamford Hospital with a lung contusion later that morning.

That conversation and other details of the crash were recorded in an arrest affidavit written by Stamford Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Squad Officer Lindsey Yanicky.

Diaz on Tuesday was charged with drunk driving, two counts of seconddegree manslaughter and other violations in state Superior Court in Stamford.

The teenage driver apparently did not keep keep his word to Stephens. The young woman said she did not remember much prior to the crash itself except that Diaz was going very fast. Then everything went silent, except for the sound of glass shattering.

According to the arrest warrant, by the time the Altima, carrying six teens, neared the south end of Canal Street, it began spinning and sliding sideways. Around 2:30 a.m., the car hit a utility pole on the east side of the street and left the roadway, flying about 30 feet before touching down and continuing to skid.

The car then struck a second pole, breaking it in half. The top half of the pole and attached wires crashed down on the car, creating a flash of bright light.

Stephens said she remembered Diaz hitting the gas after he turned onto Canal Street from Jefferson Street, according to the affidavit. At the time of the crash, Stephens was in the front passenger seat.

AntoinePollack was seated in a back seat by the right side of the car, where it hit the utility pole. Tolliver was next to him.

The other two passengers, Amaiya Callahan, 19, and Alontia Moore, 20, were also in the back seats. They suffered serious injuries including broken bones and brain trauma.

According to the sevenpage affidavit, all involved were drinking at their own homes before meeting at Bartaco on Summer Street to celebrate Callahan’s birthday.

The six then went to a rented room at the Hampton Inn in Stamford, where they smoked marijuana and drank Hennessy, according to the affidavit.

A video from a nearby business recorded the crash as it happened.

“There is also what can only be described as an explosion, the entire screen is filled with light for a brief time,” Yanicky wrote in the affidavit. “After the light goes away you can see that the lower part of the utility pole in the street is on fire.”