LI Man Tested Positive For Cocaine After Fatal Crash Near LIE: DA

RIVERSIDE, NY — A Long Island man tested positive for cocaine after he was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that crashed into a car killing a man last month, prosecutors said.

Robert Hengeveld, 50, of Blue Point was driving a stolen 2004 Toyota Tacoma on Long Island Avenue in Holtsville when a Suffolk police officer tried to stop him at about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 19, Suffolk prosecutors said, adding that he fled in the truck at a high rate of speed and, “while traveling southbound on North Ocean Avenue, he struck a Honda Civic traveling eastbound on Express Drive South.”

The Honda’s driver, Starlin Manuel Diaz Felipe, 19, of Medford, was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the county Medical Examiner’s office, according to prosecutors. Twenty-five-year-old West Babylon resident Tariasha Smith, a passenger in the Toyota, was ejected from the vehicle and was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital with serious injuries, and Hengeveld was also transported there with “non-life-threatening injuries, prosecutors said.

A blood test was performed on Hengeveld and cocaine was found in Hengeveld’s blood, according to prosecutors.

He has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, second-degree manslaughter, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular manslaughter, and assault, as well as unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. He was additionally charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree reckless endangerment, driving while ability impaired by drugs, and reckless driving.

Suffolk District Attorney Tim Sini said Hengeveld “showed no regard for the law or for the safety of others when he tore down the streets in an attempt to evade police.” “Because of his reckless actions, a young man’s life was cut short and many others were put in danger,” he added.

Supreme Court Justice Chris Ann Kelley ordered Hengeveld remanded without bail.

It’s not the first time that Hengeveld has has a brush with the law.

In July, he and Smith allegedly swiped pocketbooks from various supermarkets on the south shore, then fled a traffic stop and were involved in a car crash in Medford, police said.

After partnering up on a grab at ShopRite in Patchogue, they were pulled over by an officer, but sped away and the car they were in struck a tree in Medford, police said.

They are accused of swiping bags from stores not only in Patchogue, but also in Holbrook, Lake Ronkonkoma, Bohemia, and Oakdale.

Hengeveld, who is being represented by an attorney from the Legal Aid Society, will be back in court on Nov. 30. Legal Aid Society attorneys do not comment on cases outside of court.

If convicted of the top count, he faces a maximum sentence of eight and one-third to 25 years in prison.