Freeport man pleads guilty to driving drunk, causing crash that killed 6-year-old girl

A Freeport man pleaded guilty to manslaughter, assault, and other charges for causing a 2023 crash that killed a six-year-old girl in West Hempstead, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office said.

Jorge Bonilla Gutierrez, 18, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to second degree manslaughter, second-degree assault — both felonies — and two counts of third-degree assault, and driving while intoxicated per se — both misdemeanors, prosecutors said. 

He is expected to get 6 to 12 years in prison at his sentencing on July 30.

On Aug. 7 at about 2:20 a.m., Bonilla Gutierrez was driving a Nissan Pathfinder while intoxicated when he sped through a red light and crashed into the rear driver’s side of a Toyota Corolla that had stopped in the right lane of Hempstead Turnpike near Westminster Road with the hazard lights on.

The force of the impact sent the Corolla off the roadway and into a tree, while the Nissan Pathfinder flipped multiple times.

Six-year-old Katerine Vanegas-Hernandez, a passenger in the Toyota, suffered significant internal injuries and was taken to NYU Langone Long Island Hospital, where she died shortly afterward, prosecutors said.

She was killed two days before her seventh birthday.

Her 5-year-old brother suffered a fractured spine, while the driver of the Corolla suffered multiple broken ribs. The driver of the Toyota, who was not identified, sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

As Bonilla Gutierrez was being apprehended, Nassau police saw empty beer cans inside and next to his car. He was taken to Nassau University Medical Center for broken ribs and a broken nose, prosecutors said.

A search warrant for his blood taken at the hospital revealed that his blood alcohol content was 0.17% one hour after the crash — more than double the legal limit of 0.08%., police said

Vanegas-Hernandez's mother, Evelin Lorena Santos Hernandez, and the driver, a family friend, had taken the children out for an early-morning drive to help them sleep and cool down from the summer heat when the crash took place, said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. They had stopped to look at something left on the curb when the car was hit. Hernandez was outside the car at the time.

The family had recently immigrated to the United States from El Salvador, a family friend previously told Newsday. 

“Last August was a horrific time on our roadways, tragically claiming multiple lives, including Katherine’s just two days shy of her seventh birthday,” Donnelly said. “We continue to implore motorists not to drink and drive this summer.”