Judge Sentences Stamford Woman Who Drove Drunk & Killed Two on I-95 in Darien

After the deaths of two young men — Felipe Chagas, 19, of Bethel, and Lucas Silva, 21, of Stamford (who graduated from Greenwich High School) — the woman who was drunk while driving the vehicle that struck them on Interstate 95 was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison, the Stamford Advocate reported.

As Judge Gary White in state Superior Court in Stamford pronounced the sentence for Candace Blanks, 43, of Stamford, the Advocate reported, “Vera Chagas the mother of one of the men killed, pushed her hands into her face while crying and shrieked ‘You killed my son and you got only six months.’”

According to accusations in court documents, on Oct. 16, 2010, Blanks had been drinking with friends in Norwalk before heading back to Stamford on Interstate 95, where, at about 2:26 a.m., she hit both men with her black Lincoln Navigator.

Chagas, a college student, and Silva were changing a tire. Their vehicle wasn’t hit by Blanks, and law enforcement officials said couldn’t prove the two men were far enough off to the side of the road to get a conviction on more serious charges carrying a tougher sentence, according to the news report, which was also published in the Darien News.

On top of that, state police destroyed the car and most of the evidence after mistakenly thinking the case had been settled.

For more details, see the article on the Stamford Advocate or Darien News websites.