Man Pleads Guilty To Killing 2 In Dirt Bike Crash: DA

MASTIC BEACH, NY — A Mastic Beach man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing two on a dirt bike in a motor vehicle crash last year, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini.

Christopher Bouchard, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree manslaughter, a felony, for killing two men on a dirt bike in a motor vehicle crash in North Bellport in 2017, Sini said Thursday.

“My office worked closely with the victims’ families to come to this disposition. We believe this outcome administers justice and hope it brings them a sense of closure,” Sini said.

Bouchard is expected to be sentenced to three and one-half to 10 and one-half years in prison, Sini said.

Families of the victims who were in the courtroom were heartbroken and enraged by the plea deal, according to Newsday. "This is injustice," Lina Garriques, mother of Holmes-Garriques, said in the Newsday report. "It was murder. . . I agreed to it because I didn't want him to walk. I want him to suffer. He killed my baby. That's what he did."

At approximately 7:15 a.m. on June 22, 2017, officers from the Suffolk County Police Department’s Seventh Precinct responded to the Bouchard's residence following a report that his brother’s 2006 Honda dirt bike had been stolen out of the garage, Sini said.

Bouchard was later notified that the dirt bike had been seen by a friend in the Bellport area; he then drove his 2002 Honda Odyssey minivan, with his brother as a passenger in the vehicle, toward Bellport, Sini said. Bouchard observed his brother’s dirt bike with two male occupants on it on Montauk Highway near the intersection of Doane Avenue in North Bellport, Sini said.

He chased after the bike at a high rate of speed through the streets of North Bellport — and, at approximately 10:15 a.m., Bouchard’s van struck the rear tire of the dirt bike, causing the two occupants to be thrown off, Sini said.

The operator of the dirt bike, Keenen King, 19, of Shirley, was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, Sini said.

The passenger of the dirt bike, Anthony Holmes-Garriques, 20, of North Bellport, was transported by South Country Ambulance to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center and later transported to Stony Brook University Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, Sini said.

Bouchard was arrested by Suffolk County Police on June 22, 2017 and charged with first degree reckless endangerment, a felony; he was indicted on November 6, 2017 on two counts of second degree manslaughter, a felony; two counts of criminally negligent homicide, a felony; and one count of reckless driving, a misdemeanor, Sini said.

Bouchard is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 9 in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Raymond Varuolo, of the Vehicular Crime Bureau.

Patch courtesy photo.