Anti-gang activist's family says they will 'never forgive' Ann Marie Drago at sentencing for death of Evelyn Rodriguez

A family member of Evelyn Rodriguez said she will never forgive the former Patchogue nurse who was sentenced to probation Tuesday after admitting to killing the anti-gang activist on a Brentwood street in 2018.

Ann Marie Drago, 61, of upstate Delaware County, declined to address the court before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro sentenced her to 5 years' probation in a bargained-for disposition that saw Drago admit her guilt to the top charge of criminally negligent homicide in May. Drago ran Rodriguez over in a vehicle.

"I will never forgive you for what you did, nor will I forget the pain," Kaitlyn Cuevas, Rodriguez's 14-year-old daughter, told Drago, who mostly looked forward during the sentencing.

Ambro described the case as a "long, painful court saga" that stretched over two trials, one that led to an overturned conviction and a second that ended with a hung jury and later a plea deal to avoid a third trial.

"Arriving at an appropriate sentence in any case is one of the more difficult things to do," Ambro told the audience in the court, which included Rodriguez's husband and two of their daughters. "Nothing anyone does can give the family Evelyn back. We can't do that."

The plea bargain was offered by Ambro on May 31 after prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 1 to 3 years. Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Laura Newcombe said prosecutors stood by their belief that Drago should spend between 1 and 3 years behind bars.

Ambro called the probation sentence, which was supported by a Suffolk County Probation Department recommendation of no jail, "reasonable, fair and just" despite the circumstances of the "tragic case."

Rodriguez's eldest daughter, Kelsey Cuevas, 24, of Brentwood, said, "After today there will still be no peace in me or my family's heart."

Rodriguez and her husband, Freddy Cuevas, confronted Drago on the afternoon of Sept. 14, 2018, after she took down a vigil to their late teen daughter, Kayla Cuevas, 16, and friend Nisa Mickens, 15, who both had been killed by MS-13 gang members near that location, where Drago's mother lived, exactly two years earlier. Some of the items, which were set up for an event scheduled for that evening, were thrown in the trash by Drago, who placed other items in the back of her SUV.

Video of the incident on Ray Court recorded by a News 12 film crew that had been at the site to interview Rodriguez and broadcast the vigil showed the couple shouting expletives at Drago as she and her boyfriend attempted to leave the area with some of the belongings still in their possession.

The News 12 video showed Drago initially backed up, stopped, then turned her wheel to the left and drove forward, knocking Rodriguez to the ground and then driving over her head.

"I can't stress to you how bad it hurts," Kelsey Cuevas said of losing her mother, 50, and sister, 16, at the same location two years to the day apart.

Kaitlyn Cuevas was 8 years old when her mother was killed. The 14-year-old fought to hold back tears as she spoke of all she has lost with the death.

"I really hope you're disappointed at yourself," Kaitlyn told Drago.

Freddy Cuevas described his wife as a "great woman" and "wonderful mother" who worked to rid her community of gang violence in the aftermath of their daughter's death. Rodriguez had received nationwide attention for her anti-gang efforts and was an invited guest of former President Donald Trump at the 2018 State of the Union address and later met with him to talk about gang violence during a visit to Bethpage.

 Cuevas acknowledged his deceased daughter during his remarks at sentencing, saying that even though the proceeding did not directly relate to her killing, it is why they were in that location the day his wife died.

"We did nothing wrong or nothing out of the ordinary for Evelyn not to be here today," Cuevas said. 

Newcombe said it was a series of "choices" made by Drago that caused Rodriguez's death.

"[Drago] had choices and made choices that day," Newcombe said. "She chose to dismantle what was clearly a memorial set up for Kayla Cuevas that day, and she chose to steal a number of items . . . and then she chose to take her foot off the brake, turn her wheel to the left and hit the gas."

Defense attorney Matthew Hereth, of the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, said Drago thinks about the Cuevas family every day and that her sympathies date back to even before Rodriguez's death, to when Kayla Cuevas was found in her mother's backyard in 2016. He said Drago declined to speak because she felt nothing she could say would change anything.

 "I think if there was anything she could do in the world to take away the pain that the family is feeling, she would do it," Hereth said. "I think by taking this plea, she's hoping that it will provide them some closure."

At one point during the sentencing, as his daughter Kelsey spoke, Freddy Cuevas exited the courtroom, slamming the door behind him.

Cuevas later returned to the courtroom and when asked about it afterward, chalked his reaction up to what he believes is a lack of justice.

"We didn't get the justice that we were looking for," he said. 

Asked if there was anything he would have liked to hear from Drago, Freddy Cuevas said "not really."

"It's not going to change anything," he said. "It's not going to bring Evelyn back. What was done is done."

Drago also was sentenced to 3 years' probation for her conviction of petit larceny for taking flowers and pictures from the memorial, though that will run concurrently to her probation for criminally negligent homicide. Ambro said he will allow her to serve the probation upstate, where she now lives.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.