Drunk Driver Who Killed Just-Engaged Orthodox Couple Hit With Manslaughter Charge
Police slapped manslaughter charges on one of the drivers in a deadly chain-reaction car crash that claimed the lives of a recently engaged Orthodox couple.
Rahmel Watkins, 35, of Brooklyn, who was already charged with drunk driving, was additionally charged on Monday with two counts of manslaughter.
The tragedy occurred at 1:40 am on April 4 on the Nassau Expressway near JFK International Airport. Yisroel Levin, 21, of Brooklyn, and Elisheva Kaplan, 20, of Queens, were driving when their sedan was caught in the chain reaction crash, which involved five cars. Levin and Kaplan’s car reportedly caught on fire, killing them. The two were engaged one week earlier.
Zakiyyah Steward, also from Brooklyn, reportedly also prompted the crash. The twenty-five year old, who was hit with four charges, including pot possession and driving while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, is no stranger to being in court. She has previously faced charges for burglary.
“I’ll take the blame for giving her too many chances,” Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino who ruled on Steward’s previous case told Yeshiva World.
Contact Haley Cohen at hcohen@forward.com
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO