Driver Charged In Harlem Crash That Killed 3-Year-Old Boy

Harlem NY

17 February, 2021

5:51 PM

Description

EAST HARLEM, NY — A 61-year-old man was indicted Tuesday for being the driver in a 2019 collision that killed a boy and injured his mother in East Harlem. Jaime Sabogal, a Yonkers resident, was behind the wheel of a pickup truck the morning of Dec. 9, 2019, as three-year-old Bertin DeJesus and his 25-year-old mother crossed the street at East 116th Street and First Avenue. Sabogal made a fast left turn from 116th onto First, according to prosecutors, and hit the boy and his mother in the crosswalk. DeJesus was killed "nearly instantly," according to District Attorney Cyrus Vance. "Not only was the defendant driving recklessly with no regard for pedestrians, but he did so knowing his driver's license had been suspended," Vance said in a statement. Sabogal's indictment Wednesday came more than three months after he was originally supposed to appear in court. In November, Sabogal failed to show up at his initial indictment, prompting a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest, Streetsblog reported. Sabogal told Streetsblog last year that he felt absolved by video showing that the boy had been walking in front of his mother right before the crash, saying she should have been holding her son's hand. Sabogal's charges include second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, driving with a suspended license and injuring pedestrians with the right of way. DeJesus was the third child younger than six to be killed by a driver in New York City in 2019, according to the safe streets advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.