Victim Struck While Crossing Street
An Astoria man has been arraigned on charges of vehicular manslaughter and driving while under the influence of alcohol in the death of an 89-year-old pedestrian crossing a neighborhood intersection last week.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified the defendant as Demitrios Matsoukatidis, 67, of 23rd Street in Astoria. He was arraigned last Wednesday, Feb. 8, before Queens Criminal Court Judge John Zoll on a criminal complaint charging him with one count of second-degree vehicular manslaughter (Vasean’s Law) and two counts of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Matsoukatidis, who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $50,000 bail and to return to court on Feb. 28.
“The defendant is accused of getting behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol and being involved in a traffic accident in which a pedestrian was struck and killed,” Brown said. “By his alleged actions, the defendant illustrated the lethal consequences resulting from driving while intoxicated.”
According to the charges, Matsoukatidis was driving a 1998 Black Mercedes SUV eastbound on 21st Avenue at approximately 6:04 p.m. last Tuesday, Feb. 7, when he struck Aldama Lizardo, 89, also of Astoria, who was crossing the street at the intersection of 21st Avenue and 31st Street.
Police responding to the scene allegedly observed damage to the hood and the grill of Matsoukatidis’s vehicle and that he had bloodshot watery eyes and an odor of alcohol on his breath.
It is further alleged that an intoxilyzer test administered to Matsoukatidis resulted in a blood alcohol content reading of .16 percent-above the legal limit of .08 percent in New York.
Lizardo, who suffered severe head trauma as a result of the incident, was taken to a local Queens hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Assistant District Attorney Patricia Diaz of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, bureau chief, and Peter J. McCormack III and Richard B. Schaeffer, deputy bureau chiefs, and John W. Kosinski, Vehicular Homicide Unit chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
It was noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
