The teenaged driver who struck and killed 4-year-old Ariel Russo in 2013 has been sentenced to up to nine years in prison.
Franklin Reyes, 18, was handed the three-to-9 year sentence today, nearly one year after pleading guilty to manslaughter charges. Reyes struck Ariel on June 4th, 2013, while she crossed an Upper West Side street with her grandmother—he was 17 years old and unlicensed at the time, and was also fleeing police when he struck the little girl.
Reyes was arrested several more times after killing Ariel, once for allegedly robbing an apartment with his father, and another time for driving without a license and trying to flee a police officer.
"What's in this man's head is kind of a window into his soul about how he really feels," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said in court. Ariel's mother, Sofia Russo, read in a statement, "Ariel died a violent death because of your reckless behavior and you have not apologized. You have shown no remorse." She added, "Why are you still here? What are you going to do with your life? Are you going to just survive and then return home to continue in your recklessness and indifference? Are you a bad person who wants to harm others? Or, are you a thoughtless, irresponsible person who feels indifference towards the effect of your recklessness on the lives of others?"
The teen was initially offered a deal that would afford him the status of youthful offender, cutting his sentence down to 16 to 18 months in prison. Carro rescinded that deal after Reyes's subsequent arrests.
