New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Derby man faces 12 years for Shelton DUI crash that killed 2
MILFORD — The man behind the wheel during a 2020 Shelton crash that killed two of his passengers and paralyzed another will face up to a dozen years years behind bars after taking a plea deal in the case Monday.
Rakiem Reid, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle and a single count of seconddegree assault with a motor vehicle before Judge Peter Brown in Milford Superior Court.
A plea offer from the judge calls for a 20-year prison sentence to be suspended after a maximum of 12 years and a minimum of six and a half years, to be followed by five years of probation.
But the judge said that, if after reading a sentencing report and hearing from the victim’s families, he decides the offer is “not appropriate under the circumstances,” he would allow Reid to withdraw the pleas and have the matter proceed toward trial.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Sanangelo said Reid was driving his BMW south on River Road in Shelton about 11:30 p.m. Feb. 9, 2020 when he entered the northbound lane while trying to pass a Toyota RAV4 making a left-hand turn into Southbank Park and struck the other vehicle.
The prosecutor said Reid’s BMW was going so fast that after the collision it crossed the northbound lane, went over a guardrail and then into several trees next to the road before rolling over downhill and coming to rest.
Two of Reid’s passengers — Lily Pirulli, 20, of Monroe, and Adrian Miles, 31 of Ansonia — were pronounced dead at the scene. A third, Meghan Nealy, an Ansonia resident who was 26 at the time of the crash, was paralyzed.
Nealy was in court Monday, as were more than a dozen members of hers, Pirulli’s and Miles’ families, many of whom cried throughout the proceeding. None spoke, but Sanangelo said several of them planned on making remarks during Reid’s sentencing, scheduled for July 25.
Sanangelo said Reid told police that before the crash he had been drinking in Shelton with his three friends, but that he decided he was too drunk to drive and pulled over to switch seats with Nealy, who had no recollection of what had happened, but had injuries consistent with being in a rear passenger seat.
The prosecutor said cops found surveillance footage of Reid pulling away from Center Street Social in downtown Shelton minutes before the crash. She said police tried to re-trace the path of Reid’s car from there to the accident scene and determined there was no way he could have stopped to pull over.
“It was not physically possible even when the officers were driving 60 miles an hour,” Sanangelo said.
In addition, she said, “the front passenger and entire rear of the vehicle was crushed as a result of the accident. The only area of the car that sustained no damage was the front driver’s seat.”
After obtaining a search warrant for Reid’s medical records, police calculated Reid’s blood alcohol level to be .128, well over the legal limit of .08. The records also turned up traces of cocaine in his system, Sanangelo said.
Reid, who lived in Derby at the time of the crash, had multiple convictions for driving under the influence and operating under suspension on his record.
Reid’s lawyer, Kevin Smith, said his client, who sobbed throughout Monday’s hearing, is “struggling and grappling with how to put his own life back together and reckoning with the lives that have been lost.”
“I think today was the first step in a long series of steps that Mr. Reid is trying to take in order to make amends to the best of his ability,” Smith said.
Reid has been behind bars since May 2020, when he was extradited from North Carolina after Shelton police obtained an arrest warrant charging him in connection with the crash. He is currently being held at Cheshire Correctional Institution in lieu of $500,000 bond.