Judge: I'll give maximum in fatal crash
David Heise, 28, of Mooney Pond Road was driving a Dodge pickup truck on Veterans Memorial Highway in Ronkonkoma when he struck a BMW driven by Eugene Franjola, 17, of Oakdale, police said. Franjola and his friend Stephen Massina, 16, of Sayville, died in the crash. (April 11, 2010) Credit: SCPD
If there was ever any chance that a Selden man might get less than the maximum sentence for pleading guilty to killing two Connetquot High School students in a car crash, it disappeared Thursday.
The morning after the students' parents held a rally at the crash site in Ronkonkoma protesting anything less than the maximum sentence, Suffolk County Court Judge James F.X. Doyle told David Heise that if he pleads guilty to criminally negligent homicide, he'll get the maximum of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
That calmed the mothers of the victims, who said they had feared Heise, 29, was on the verge of striking a deal for no more than a year in jail. Although the mothers and Assistant District Attorney Melissa Turk said they'd heard the deal was offered, it was never put on the record in court.
An online petition effort with hundreds of signatures, started by a friend of the mothers, has also urged tough punishment for Heise.
Heise and his attorney, Eric Besso, said nothing about the judge's statement in court and refused to comment as they left the courthouse.
Heise is charged with running a red light while driving a pickup without a license in Ronkonkoma and killing Stephen Massina, 16, of Sayville, and Eugene Franjola, 17, of Oakdale, about a year ago. He also faces a maximum of nine years on unrelated charges of dealing heroin after he was arrested in August with about 100 bags of heroin in his underwear, authorities said.
"I think the judge realizes these were children," Margaret Massina said after court. "No one should ever have to go through this."
"I'm just trying to get justice for my son," said Barbara Franjola. She said the boys' deaths have hurt not just their families, but friends and neighbors as well. "My younger son, he's devastated," she said. "He's an only child now."
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
