February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown identified the defendant as Anthony Neville, 41, of 47-41 157th St., Flushing. Neville, showing visible signs of strain, pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the second degree before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt. Neville also admitted that he had consumed more than seven alcoholic drinks and was intoxicated on the evening in question.
According to the charges, while operating a gray Ford van, Neville struck Penny Douma, 31, on June 5, 2003 at about 9:30 p.m. at 149th Street and 38th Avenue in Flushing, causing her to sustain an abrasion to her leg, torn cartilage inside her knee and substantial pain. Neville allegedly stopped briefly to apologize and then drove away from the scene. “He was drunk,” Douma told reporters. “I could smell it off him. I said, ‘Are you [expletive] dumb?’ I cursed him out.”
It was also charged that about 15 minutes after he collided with Douma, Neville — while driving at a high rate of speed on Colden Street between Laburnum and Mulberry Avenues in Flushing — collided with the driver’s side of a parked car and struck Martha Rosa Viquez, 48, a devout Jehovah’s Witness who had just left a local Kingdom Hall. The collision fatally injured Viquez and then Neville drove away from the scene. The woman’s daughter, Carla Barbosa, 21, screamed after the accident, “My Mom! My Mom! What am I going to do?” witnesses said.
Speaking after the court appearance, District Attorney Brown said: “The defendant has admitted his guilt and acknowledged that while driving under the influence of alcohol he caused the death of one woman and injury to another. Drinking and driving are a lethal mixture that too often turns drivers into killers and victims into statistics of heartbreak and tragedy. The defendant has now been held accountable for his crime and will be sent to prison.”
On the night in question Neville was observed to have had a strong smell of alcohol, bloodshot and watery eyes, and slurred speech. It is understood that he had been drinking for some time in the Blarney Stone pub on 45th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan and also at Kelly’s pub in Flushing, before he attempted to make his way home. A breathalyzer test that was administered on the night in question indicated that he had a .19 per centum blood alcohol content. (A .10 per centum blood alcohol content is the maximum allowed by state law).
The case was adjourned for sentencing until Nov. 24. The judge indicated that on that date she would sentence the defendant to an indeterminate term of one and one-half years to four and one-half years in prison.