Ex-Firefighter Sentenced For LI Crash That Killed Beloved Teacher: DA

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Joseph Norris, a former New York City firefighter from Babylon, was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection with a 2020 wrong-way DWI crash that killed a Bayside teacher from Kings Park, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said.

Norris pleaded guilty in May to aggravated vehicular homicide and manslaughter in 5 to 15-year prison sentences that run concurrently. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated DWI.

He told Mariano's family he would "trade places with Anthony" if he could, Newsday reported.

Mariano, a longtime social studies teacher at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, was killed by Norris, who was driving a pickup truck southbound in the northbound lanes on the Sunken Meadow State Parkway in Smithtown north of exit SM3 on Nov. 20, 2020, prosecutors said.

Mariano died at the scene, while Norris was brought to Southside Hospital with serious injuries, New York State Police said after the crash.

"He was such an amazing teacher who made social studies fun and interesting to learn about, by presenting it in such a way that made you genuinely want to listen to him teach it," a former student wrote on Mariano's online obituary page. "He is one of very few teachers from Cardozo that I remember particularly well to this day because of the impression he left upon me."

Mariano's family has asked that donations be made in his name to the John Theissen Children's Foundation.