Woman Pleads Guilty In Killing Of Upper West Side Doorman: DA

Upper West Side NY

04 December, 2020

10:25 AM

Description

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A woman pleaded guilty to striking and killing a beloved doorman and badly injuring another person on the Upper West Side in 2019, the Manhattan District Attorney announced Friday. Jessenia Fajardo, 35, was driving north on West End Avenue on July 19, 2019, in a 2011 Acura SUV when the traffic signal turned red, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Fajardo ignored the red light and drove through the intersection, where she struck and killed 62-year-old Alfred Pocari, and seriously injured a 65-year-old woman also crossing the street, the DA said. Fajardo pleaded guilty and was convicted of manslaughter and two counts of assault, the Manhattan District Attorney Office announced on Friday. According to the office, the judge in the case is expected to offer a sentence of two to six years, which will be given out on March 2, 2021. She was first charged for the crimes in October 2019, to which she initially pleaded not guilty. Pocari worked on the Upper West Side as a doorman at a West End Avenue building and was known for his warm personality, the West Side Rag first reported. The doorman moved to New York from Albania and was a grandfather, according to the report. A GoFundMe campaign set up for Pocari and his family after his death raised over $20,000. "The death of Alfred Pocari, a beloved grandfather of three, was not only tragic — it was a foreseeable and devastating consequence of the defendant's habitually reckless driving," said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr, in a news release. "Our laws are fundamentally broken when it takes the death of a fellow New Yorker to get a driver with a history of reckless conduct off the road, as is demonstrated in this case." Fajardo also pleaded guilty to a separate vehicle incident where she drove over a man's foot while in the Tribeca intersection of Desbrosses Street and Washington Street, stopped her car and then fled the scene when the man said he was going to file a police report, according to a criminal complaint. Vance thanked police officers in the Upper West Side's 24th Precinct for their help in the case.