Sentence Handed Down For Fatal Nassau Hit-And-Run: Nassau DA

MINEOLA, NY — A Suffolk County man was sentenced on Monday to up to seven years in prison for a hit-and-run collision in 2022 that killed a man in Island Park, prosecutors said.

Corey Henson, 33, of Centereach, pleaded guilty in November to charges of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an incident resulting in death and driving while intoxicated, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced.

"Dodanim Emanuel Chavez was a devoted husband and father, who was simply moving furniture to a new home with the help of some friends when he was struck and killed by an intoxicated Corey Henson," Donnelly said. "Henson fled the scene and finally crashed five miles later into a guardrail and disabled his vehicle."

According to charges, on July 11, 2022, at approximately 9:07 p.m., 30-year-old Dodanim Emanuel Chavez was moving belongings to a new home with the help of two friends. The victim was standing along the driver’s side of his friend’s pick-up truck on Long Beach Road in Island Park when he was struck by Henson, who was driving southbound in his 2022 Ford Transit Connect, Donnelly said.

The victim suffered severe head trauma and was pronounced dead at an area hospital.

After the collision, Henson crashed his van into a guardrail on South Main Street in Freeport and the van was towed to a local yard, Donnelly said.

A subsequent investigation revealed that before the collision, Henson drank multiple alcoholic beverages over two hours at a local restaurant before driving his vehicle, and was intoxicated when he struck the victim.

"Through the combined efforts of the Nassau County Police Department Homicide Squad, the Freeport Police Department, and my prosecutors, we were able to find this defendant, retrace his movements, and hold him accountable for Mr. Chavez’s senseless and tragic death," Donnelly said.