Ann Marie Drago jurors: 4 of 12 held out on top charge

Four of the 12 jurors in Ann Marie Drago's case held out on the top charge of criminally negligent homicide in the death of anti-gang activist Evelyn Rodriguez, before a Suffolk judge declared a mistrial Monday, a pair of jurors told Newsday.   

The four holdouts, who stood firm in their vote of “not guilty” across four days and more than 20 hours of deliberations, believed prosecutors failed to tie the events that caused Rodriguez’s death to the specific elements of the criminally negligent homicide charge, the pair said. 

“The four people didn't think that the prosecution had made the case,” a juror who requested anonymity said. “It was more about the meaning of the charge and how to apply it.”

Rodriguez was struck and run over by Drago’s Nissan Rogue on Ray Court in Brentwood on Sept. 14, 2018, after she and her husband, Freddy Cuevas, confronted Drago for dismantling a memorial set up for a vigil remembering their daughter, Kayla Cuevas.

Kayla Cuevas and her friend Nisa Mickens had been killed by MS-13 gang members days before Cuevas’ body was found by Drago’s mother in her backyard on the same Brentwood street exactly two years earlier. Drago was attempting to sell the home for her mother at the time Rodriguez was fatally struck.

On Friday, the same jury of seven men and five women found Drago guilty of misdemeanor petit larceny for placing items from the memorial belonging to Rodriguez in her vehicle prior to Rodriguez's death, and acquitted Drago of criminal mischief for destroying other items. Those verdicts will stand, State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro said.

A sticking point

The issue of whether Drago should have foreseen the possibility of causing Rodriguez's death became a sticking point during deliberations, the jurors said.

“Death is a reasonably foreseeable result of a person's conduct when the death should have been foreseen as being reasonably related to the actor's conduct,” according to the charge read by Ambro several times during deliberations.

Ambro declared a mistrial on the criminally negligent homicide charge, a felony punishable by up to 4 years in prison, at the request of the defense. Prosecutors took no position.

“It was a tragic accident and then it was up to us to decide if there was any negligence,” said a second juror, who also asked to remain anonymous. “Obviously, [four jurors] felt the evidence didn't prove that there was any negligence.”

It was the mistrial on the top charge, which Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney already has said he intends to try again, that left friends and family of Rodriguez disappointed. It would be the third time Drago stands trial for criminally negligent homicide after her previous conviction was overturned by an appellate court, which cited misconduct by a previous prosecutor.

In a July 2022 decision, a four-judge panel of the Brooklyn-based New York Supreme Court Appellate Division said that during closing arguments at Drago’s 2019 trial, the prior prosecutor “mischaracterized the evidence relating to the charge of criminally negligent homicide and confused the jury” by repeatedly suggesting Drago’s conduct in striking Rodriguez with the vehicle was “intentional or reckless" by using language such as “conscious, blameworthy choices."

The ruling added that the prosecutor, who worked under former District Attorney Timothy Sini, “continually evoked sympathy for Rodriguez by calling her a 'grieving mother' and referencing her 'murdered daughter.’ ”

Rodriguez's friend speaks

Barbara Medina, a crime victims advocate who befriended Rodriguez after Cuevas’ death and later worked with her to curb gang violence in Brentwood, said she believes the prosecutors at the second trial, assistant district attorneys Laura Newcombe and Emma Henry, faced an uphill battle not being able to describe Rodriguez “for who she was.”

“Evelyn was a victim and she was a grieving mother who transformed her pain into a mission to eradicate gangs from the streets of Long Island,” said Medina, who helped plan the 2018 vigil and testified at Drago’s first trial. 

Ambro prevented Medina from testifying at the second trial after defense attorney Matthew Hereth said her testimony served no purpose other than to “evoke juror sympathy for Rodriguez.” Hereth, deputy bureau chief with the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, declined to comment throughout the trial.

Had she been allowed to testify, Medina said she would have explained to the jury the purpose of the vigil and that Rodriguez had prior permission from Drago’s mother to memorialize Cuevas outside the home.

“It was important that everyone who testified in the first trial, testified at the second one,” Medina said. “Every piece was an element that was valuable to hold Ann Marie Drago accountable.”

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.