Amandeep Singh sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison in wrong-way crash that killed teens Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein

A Roslyn man who killed two teenage tennis stars and injured two others in a wrong-way drunken driving crash in 2023 faced a barrage of condemnation from the families of the boys and a survivor as he was sentenced to the maximum prison time in Nassau County Court Friday morning.

Amandeep Singh, 36, a construction business owner, received 8 ⅓ to 25 years behind bars for killing Roslyn High School varsity tennis players Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein, both 14, after plowing into their car in Jericho as they returned from a victory over their rival high school team the Syosset Braves on May 3 around 10:30 p.m.

Zachary Sheena, 19, the driver of the demolished four-door Alfa Romeo carrying the boys, said no matter how long Singh spends behind bars it doesn’t compare to the pain and suffering that he goes through every day.

"This coward has sentenced me to a lifetime of suffering," he told the court from the witness stand, breaking his silence for the first time. "While I see everyone around me moving forward in their lives, it’s impossible for me to forget what happened in my past. I am forced to live in the past and relive that nightmare over and over. I worked for everything in my life. Each and everything I did, I earned. And you, you stole it all from me."

Singh pleaded guilty in January after his lawyers failed to suppress damning police body-worn camera footage that showed him drunk, incoherent and hiding beside a dumpster about 500 feet from the crash.

Good Samaritans helped Singh crawl from the wreckage of his massive 2021 red Dodge TRX pickup on North Broadway in Jericho after the impact had caused the truck to flip over.

Instead of helping the wounded boys or sticking around for authorities to arrive, he fled the scene, Michael Bushwack, head of the district attorney’s vehicular crimes bureau, noted in his statement before the punishment was handed down.

The Nassau prosecutor revealed for the first time that this was Singh’s second drunken driving conviction. He had been found guilty previously in 2006, but received no prison time because he was 17 and a youthful offender, the prosecutor said. Singh was also convicted that same year for first-degree assault and gang assault but served no time, he said.

Sheena, one of the Roslyn varsity tennis co-captains, recalled the hope and excitement he had that early May morning on the day of the crash.

"I woke up pumped for our tennis match against our rivals the Syosset Braves," he said. "Throughout my entire school day, all I could think about was winning the match we had that day."

Sheena gave a pep talk to the team and then went on to win his match, he said. He rushed over to see Drew make quick work of a Syosset senior who had been accepted to a Division I college tennis program.

"I wasn’t surprised. It was nothing new. That was the legendary Drew Hassenbein. He was a prodigy. He was a superstar," Sheena said. "More importantly, he was a role model for everyone around him. His work ethic was inspiring. Watching him play as a young kid is what inspired me to train more."

And then it was time for Ethan’s match.

"After Drew’s amazing victory, our entire team sat right in front of court 2 and watched as Ethan Falkowitz brought home his doubles match under the lights," Sheena said. "When I tell you Ethan was one of the smartest and kindest-hearted human beings I’ve ever met, I mean that. All he wanted to do was make people smile. He wanted to make his family proud. He was a winner inside and out."

Still riding high from their victory, the team piled into three cars and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings where they played Pop-A-Shot basketball, watched the Yankees game and ate.

After dinner, Sheena said he and the boys got back into the car with one other teammate and started to head home.

"A few minutes into the drive home, the brightest light I had ever seen started coming toward me at an indescribable pace," Sheena told the court, his voice shaking. "Moments later my car was destroyed by a massive red Ram TRX. I was unconscious. When I woke, my whole body was numb. My head was spinning and I was covered in blood. I didn’t even care. I just wanted to find my friends. I just wanted them to be alive."

Besides glass shards in his eyes and multiple cuts and bruises, the young man suffered several herniated disks and spinal injuries that had doctors wondering if he would walk again.

"Every day and night is full of pain and suffering," he said. "I feel that every day my health continues to wither away more and more. Spinal and head injuries affect your entire body. These are injuries that I will live with for the rest of my life. Since that night, I vomit violently from the headaches and migraines. I have had multiple procedures and multiple hospitalizations including one this week. I just had my second back procedure in the last 2 months and will likely need spinal surgery in the future."

In addition to the physical injuries, Sheena said that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he has trouble sleeping and when he does fall asleep he is often awakened by nightmares.

Over eight other statements to the court on Friday from the siblings of Drew and Ethan, their parents and Ethan’s grandfather, the family members detailed the trauma and the horror that they feel every day, terrified and resentful of what Singh did to the boys.

"You had a series of choices to make that night, opportunity after opportunity to do the right thing," Gary Falkowitz told Singh, who avoided looking at the family members as they spoke. "You could have chosen anything else that night, you chose to kill."

Singh’s family, filling up the right side of the gallery in the courtroom, could be heard weeping as the other families spoke.

Singh wiped tears from his eyes throughout the three-hour hearing and then it was his turn to speak publicly for the first time since the crash.

"Today, I will not let fear take over me and be a coward, I will take responsibility for my actions which were absolutely unacceptable. I am guilty of drinking and driving. I was guilty of everything from the point I decided to drink and drive. This is my fault, not anyone else’s," he said.

He apologized to the Falkowitz, Hassenbein and Sheena families for what he did and said he understood their anger toward him.

"Losing a child is the greatest grief in the world, as a father myself, I cannot imagine the pain you're in," he said. "If anyone should have died on the night of May 3, it should have been me. The two angels Ethan and Drew did not deserve this."

Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty said that in all her 13 years on the bench presiding over cases with horrific crimes "none have touched our community more than this one has."

She noted the leniency granted Singh in his previous run-ins with the law, his selfishness in fleeing the scene after being help himself and his lack of remorse shown in the presentence interview before handing down the maximum sentence.

"Mr. Singh all of your choices have brought you to this day," the judge said. "You have devastated four families."