Freeport Man Sentenced For Drunken Driving Fatal Crash: Prosecutors

MINEOLA, NY — A Freeport man was sentenced on Friday to six to 18 years in prison for striking and killing a woman while he was drunken driving in March, prosecutors said.

Tyshaun Johashen, 32, pleaded guilty on August 30, to charges that include aggravated vehicular homicide, second-degree assault and aggravated driving while intoxicated.

"Tyshaun Johashen was at least three times the legal limit for alcohol and driving with a suspended license when he struck and killed Mia Pollidore," Nassau County DA Anne Donnelly said. “This prison sentence — and a lifetime of having to live with taking another person’s life — is the result of making the reckless choice to drink and get behind the wheel."

According to the charges, on March 1, 2023, at approximately 7:02 p.m., the victim, 24-year-old Mia Pollidore, was walking westbound across Babylon Turnpike just south of the intersection of Babylon Turnpike and Carroll Street. Johashen, who was driving a 2018 Nissan Sentra, was highly intoxicated as he struck the victim crossing the street, Donnelly said.

Pollidore suffered trauma to her head and legs and was pronounced deceased at the scene.

It was later determined that Johashen was driving at least 60 miles per hour at the time of impact.

"This defendant’s actions left two families heartbroken, and at sentencing today that heartbreak was on display as the mother of this defendant embraced Mia’s mother and apologized for what her son had done. Lives continue to be ripped apart on our roads. Enough is enough," Donnelly said.