Man Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter After DWI Crash Killed Brother: DA

MINEOLA, NY — A Valley Stream man pleaded guilty to manslaughter after killing his half-brother in a drunk driving accident on Long Island in 2022, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced.

Joshua Pena, 25, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges on Thursday for a drunk-driving crash that killed his 23-year-old half-brother on the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway in 2022, the DA said. Pena's guilty please came after he surrendered to the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad on Jan.23, the DA said.

Donnelly said that on June 19, 2022, at around 7:45 a.m., an off-duty East Meadow Fire Department official was driving southbound on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway towards exit 1E when he saw a white 2018 Mercedes on top of the guardrail, leaning against a tree.

When he approached the vehicle, he saw Xavier Pena, the victim, conscious and pinned inside the vehicle and radioed for help as Joshua Pena walked near the brush west of the vehicle, the DA said.

According to the DA, NCPD Emergency Services Unit and members of the Wantagh Fire Department assisted in removing the victim from the vehicle before transporting him to Nassau University Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased at 8:43 a.m.

Joshua Pena was also transported to NUMC where a blood draw determined he had a blood alcohol content of .17 around 45 minutes after the crash, the DA said. The data from the vehicle’s crash data recorder also revealed that shortly before the collision, the defendant was driving about 127 mph, the DA said.

"Joshua Pena was racing down the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway at 127 miles an hour and more than twice the legal limit for alcohol when he careened into a guardrail and smashed into a tree, helplessly pinning his half-brother inside the car," Donnelly said. "Xavier Pena was just 23 years old when his life was taken by the reckless actions of this defendant – his own flesh and blood. Now after this tragic and avoidable crash, one brother will never return home and the other will be confined to a prison cell for years to come. Our thoughts remain with the victim’s family during this difficult time."

On Thursday, Joshua Pena pleaded guilty before Judge Teresa Corrigan to second-degree manslaughter, a Class C felony, second-degree assault, a Class D violent felony, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, a Class D felony, two counts of driving while intoxicated, misdemeanors, second-degree reckless endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor, reckless driving, a misdemeanor), and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, the DA said.

Pena’s privilege to operate a motor vehicle in New York was suspended at the time of the crash for failure to answer summonses in Queens County, the DA said.

He is due back in court on April 3 and is expected to be sentenced to 3-1/2 to 8-1/4 years in prison while the NCDA recommended a sentence of 6 to 12 years in prison, the DA said.