LI Man Pleads Guilty To Killing Dad, 3 Kids While Driving On Drugs: DA

LINDENHURST, NY – A Long Island man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to killing a father and three children and injuring two teenagers while driving a vehicle while high on fentanyl and cocaine, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly.

Michael DeAngelo, 33, of Lindenhurst, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide for an August 2023 East Massapequa crash before Judge Robert Schwartz, the DA said.

According to the investigation, on August 6, 2023, at about 7:15 p.m., 60-year-old Patrice Huntley was stopped at a traffic light in his 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe on Sunrise Highway at Unqua Road in East Massapequa when DeAngelo, while high on fentanyl and cocaine, crashed his 2023 Hyundai Kona into multiple vehicles stopped at the light, the DA said.

According to the DA, Huntley and the children were hit so hard that their SUV was pushed through the intersection and spun around so that it was facing oncoming traffic. Meanwhile, DeAngelo’s vehicle went airborne and landed upside down, the DA said.

According to the event data recorder inside DeAngelo's car, he was driving about 120 miles per hour and did not brake until less than a half second before the impact, hitting the victims at about 95 miles per hour, the DA said.

The DA said that Huntley, a Marine veteran, was celebrating a recent job offer and was taking five of his family members out for ice cream to celebrate.

Huntley, his 10-year-old son Jeremiah and his 13-year-old daughter Hannah were pronounced dead that night, the DA said.

Meanwhile, Huntley’s 14-year-old son and 18-year-old stepdaughter were injured in the crash. His 6-year-old step-granddaughter, Chantel Solomon, suffered severe injuries and died six days later on August 12, the DA said.

Officials observed signs of DeAngelo's drug use, including track marks on his arm and hands — and found needles and a pipe in and around his vehicle, the DA said.

DeAngelo was transported to Nassau University Medical Center with injuries and was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad in the hospital on August 11, the DA said.

“Michael DeAngelo is one of the most staggeringly reckless defendants I have ever known. Just days before he rocketed his vehicle into Patrice Huntley and his children on Sunrise Highway, DeAngelo was arrested for alleged possession of crack cocaine and separately ran from authorities after being administered Narcan for an apparent overdose,” said DA Donnelly. “Three days after fleeing from officers, he got behind the wheel of his car, high on a dangerous cocktail of fentanyl and cocaine, pushed the accelerator to 120 miles per hour and ended the lives of a former Marine and three beautiful children on their way to get ice cream. No sentence will ever be enough to ease the pain of this heartbroken family, their friends and their community. How many more hearts must break before people learn that drugged driving destroys lives?”

DeAngelo was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, a Class B felony; four counts of second-degree manslaughter, a Class C felony; aggravated vehicular assault, a Class C felony; second-degree assault, a Class D violent felony; third-degree assault, a Class A misdemeanor; and driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs as a felony, a Class E felony, the DA said.

According to the DA, DeAngelo had two prior convictions for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Because of them, the defendant was charged with felony driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs, the DA said.

DeAngelo is due back in court for sentencing on June 28, where he is expected to be sentenced to 7 to 21 years in prison, officials said. The DA recommended the maximum sentence of 8-1/3 to 25 years in prison.

"He plans to express his remorse and ask for the family's forgiveness at his sentencing," DeAngelo's attorney Karl Seman told Patch.