Jordan Randolph sentenced to 12½ to 25 years for DWI crash that killed Jonathan Flores-Maldonado of Hampton Bays

A judge on Friday sentenced Jordan Randolph to 12½ to 25 years in prison in the 2020 death of a Hampton Bays man whose vehicle he hit while fleeing police at 137 mph on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley, a case that drew scrutiny to the state’s bail reform laws. 

At that speed, state Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro told Randolph in a Riverhead courthouse, victim Jonathan Flores-Maldonado, 27, “never had a chance.”

Ambro rebuked Randolph for disabling an interlock anti-DWI device on the Cadillac he drove into the crash that “might have saved you from yourself” and “might have saved” Flores-Maldonado. The judge also refuted a claim from Randolph in a presentencing report that not he, but a witness, had been driving.

Randolph, 43, of Bellport, will be eligible for parole after 12½ years. He was convicted in February of 13 charges, including aggravated vehicular homicide. He had faced up to life in prison if the court determined he was a persistent felony offender. His lawyer told the judge he would file an appeal Friday afternoon.

 “This defendant is a serial drunken driver who had no regard for anyone’s life, including his own,” Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said after the sentencing. “The fact that he was able to be out on the street with a pending charge for not using a court-mandated ignition interlock device before driving is beyond comprehensible." 

Randolph, wearing a green jail-issued jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind him, declined to address the court before his sentencing and said little during the 45-minute hearing except to answer the judge’s questions. He did not look toward the dozen of Flores-Maldonado’s friends and family members who sat behind him. 

Addressing the court before sentencing, Flores-Maldonado’s parents and fiancee said the pain of their loss was still raw and called Randolph remorseless, dangerous and self-centered.

Through tears, Victor Maldonado, Flores-Maldonado’s father, recalled rushing from the Bronx to the Stony Brook hospital bed where his son was taken after the 4 a.m. crash Jan. 12, 2020: “His body was still warm and there was dry blood around his nose.”

His son, he said, had graduated from Buffalo State College  and hoped to become a doctor. They’d spent nights talking about everything from the nature of the universe to stock market tips.

After his son’s death, he said, he cried himself to sleep at night and questioned his faith in God.

Lillian Flores, Flores-Maldonado’s mother, said her son had been a blood donor but the violence of the crash that killed him meant that “not one organ in his body was able to be salvaged.”

 Rebecca Carr, Flores-Maldonado’s fiance, recalled three years when they were inseparable, spending time together in class, at the gym and traveling. The relationship, she said, had “made me see the good things in life.”  

Randolph's case epitomized how the legal system  grappled with the new bail law that went into effect at the start of 2020.

On Jan. 1, Randolph was arrested in Suffolk and charged with interfering with an ignition interlock device meant to keep drunken drivers from starting their vehicle. He was released on $25 bail. State officials and legal experts who reviewed the case  said Suffolk prosecutors could have sought to detain Randolph because he was in violation of probation in Nassau.

Following the crash, Randolph was released on his own recognizance because bail laws at the time prevented the court from holding him. Suffolk prosecutors asked acting County Court Judge James McDonaugh to impose electronic monitoring on Randolph — a request that was denied. State court officials later said McDonaugh misinterpreted the new bail laws when he denied electronic monitoring.

Randolph was arrested in Nassau three days later and held without bail for violating probation, stemming from a 2017 drunken driving conviction.

In his remarks, Maldonado said he was “angry” at the state legislature for bail reform: “No one’s family should go through what he has done to ours.” 

At trial, prosecutors said Randolph had spent the night before the 4 a.m. , crash drinking and engaging in fights that were captured by security cameras at Jake’s 58 casino in Islandia.

Police spotted his Cadillac  moving erratically down a rain-soaked William Floyd Parkway, where an officer attempted to stop him. Prosecutors said Randolph was trying to elude police when his vehicle struck the rear of Flores-Maldonado’s Ford Escape with the force of a “missile,” flipping it and dragging it 600 feet. A toxicology expert testified that Randolph’s blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit 2½ hours after the crash.

 “All the suffering was caused at his hands,” said prosecutor Jacob DeLauter, summarizing the events of that night and Randolph’s record.

Before the hearing, Mark DiBernardo of Shirley, a friend of Flores-Maldonado’s who said he had ridden in his car the night of the crash, said of Randolph: “I would love for him to repent in his heart and get to know Christ.”