By Sarina Trangle
A Queens Supreme Court judge sentenced a Jackson Heights man to two years behind bars after prosecutors said he fled from a Sunnyside wreck that left an 8-year-old girl and five others injured in February, the Queens DA said.
The district attorney’s office said Judge Barry Kron handed down the prison term and a year and a half of post-release supervision to Luis Andrade Tuesday.
Andrade, 32, of Jackson Heights, pleaded guilty in October to second-degree assault — the top charge he faced — in satisfaction of other charges, the DA said.
Such a plea means other charges initially listed in his complaint, including leaving the scene of an incident without reporting serious physical injury, without reporting personal injury and with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, were dismissed.
His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
The complaint said video surveillance caught a driver losing control of a 2003 Mazda 6 on Northern Boulevard near 48th Street Feb. 1, veering from the left lane across to the right lane, slamming into a bus shelter and then driving off.
Five people were rushed to Elmhurst Hospital, including an 8-year-old girl whose skull was fractured and a woman whose femur and tibia were broken, prosecutors said.
Police recovered the Mazda with a shattered windshield and partially torn-off front bumper abandoned about a mile away, at 61st Street and 38th Avenue, prosecutors said.
Andrade, whose license is revoked and has been suspended at least three times, admitted he crashed the Mazda into the bus stop, continued driving, ditched the car and returned to the scene, where he saw several police and ambulances, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors said the car’s registered owner, Rosa Gavilanez, told investigators she gave Andrade both sets of keys to the Mazda and permission to use it.
She said he called about an hour after the accident and asked her to report the car stolen, the complaint said. Prosecutors said he then called the next day and told her he had been in an accident with the Mazda.
