UPDATED: Huntington Driver Who Huffed Cleaner Before Fatal Crash is Sentenced to Prison

Updated at 4:50 p.m.

A Huntington driver who admitted to inhaling an aerosol keyboard cleaner before he caused a fatal crash was sentenced on Friday.

James Murphy, 20, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison by State Supreme Court Justice John Collins.

Murphy was driving his Chevy Blazer northbound on Commack Road when he broadsided a Hyundai sedan and then ran a red light at the intersection of Commack and Hauppauge roads at 3:20 p.m. on December 31, 2013, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said

The driver of the sedan, Herta Palma, 63, of Commack, died soon after the crash.

“The defendant’s exact words at the crash scene were ‘I was driving the white Blazer. I’m not going to lie to you officer. I just inhaled a can of Dust Off and threw it in the back of my truck,’” Spota said in a press release.

Murphy also admitted to taking Xanax and smoking hash a few days earlier, police said.

Murphy pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree, reckless driving and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Mary Palma, Palma’s daughter-in-law, wrote a letter to the court and expressed that she was dismayed to learn that Murphy’s mother “enabled” her son.

“I was shocked after reading your (James Murphy’s) Facebook pages that you had received gifts – bongs – from your mother and family members…Why would a mother knowingly let her son drive her truck knowing he could be high on something due to it being allowed and accepted in your home,” she wrote.

Herta Palma visited her daughter-in-law’s house on the day she died to remind her family to be safe on New Year’s Eve. Mary Palma said her mother-in-law was always careful to avoid drunk drivers after she lost a friend years ago in a New Year’s Eve drunk driving crash.

“We actually spoke of it, obviously not knowing as she drove away that her life was going to be taken within nine minutes of her leaving my home,” Mary Palma wrote.

Spota hopes the state legislature will soon consider inhalants an intoxicating substance so prosecutors can charge offenders with driving while impaired by drugs in the first degree.

Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Utah and Vermont include inhalants in their laws governing driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

“It is well-established science that people who abuse inhalants experience intoxication, muscle spasms, a loss of coordination, hallucinations, and impaired judgment - and it is also a fact that for many teenagers, inhalants provide a cheap and accessible alternative to alcohol,” Spota said.

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