XPost: alt.gangs, nyc.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics

A New York woman admitted to running over and killing a grieving mother at
the same Long Island spot where the victim�s daughter had been beaten with
bats and hacked to death two years earlier by machete-wielding members of
the Mara Salvatrucha gang.

Annmarie Drago, 63, pleaded guilty to a charge of criminally negligent
homicide for fatally striking Evelyn Rodriguez, 50, with her vehicle
following a dispute about Drago�s dismantling of a memorial honoring Rodriguez�s slain daughter, 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, Suffolk County
District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced in a news release. Drago is expected to receive five years of probation when she is sentenced on Aug.
1. Prosecutors recommended one to three years in prison.

�Evelyn Rodriguez was still mourning the loss of her daughter when this defendant dismantled her daughter�s memorial, and then struck the victim
with her vehicle, ultimately causing her death. We hope this plea brings
some sense of peace and closure to Ms. Rodriguez�s family, a family that
has suffered multiple tragic losses, said Tierney. �My office is committed
to continue Ms. Rodriguez�s fight to combat the scourge of gang violence,
and to make our streets safer for all residents of Suffolk County.�

Rodriguez was killed on Sept. 14, 2018, when members of the media filming
for a vigil that evening called her after Drago dismantled the memorial to
her daughter on a sidewalk in front of her home in Brentwood.

Drago, who was involved in selling a house near the site, threw away
candles, a tablecloth, flower bouquets and vases. She loaded a table,
photo and floral arrangement in the back of her SUV and left, prosecutors
said.

Then she returned and got into a dispute with Rodriguez over the memorial.
With the media filming, Rodriguez approached Drago�s vehicle and demanded
she return the items. Drago accelerated her vehicle, knocking Rodriguez
down, and drove over her, prosecutors said. Rodriguez�s skull was
fractured, and she died at a hospital.

Drago was arrested, convicted and sentenced on a felony charge of
criminally negligent homicide. But in 2022, a New York appeals court
reversed the conviction after determining that prosecutors made �improper comments during summation.�

The DA�s Office retried her this past October and a jury deadlocked on the charge. Prosecutors had vowed to retry her a third time before Drago
entered her guilty plea on Friday.

Drago�s defense attorney said at the trial that his client was trying to
get away from a tense scene as Rodriguez shouted expletives at her.

�Fight or flight,� the defense attorney said, according to Newsday.
�Freddy and Evelyn were there for a fight, [Drago] was not � Flight was
the only reasonable thing to do.�

Prosecutors countered, �She wasn�t fleeing out of fear, she was fleeing
out of guilt,� the newspaper reported.

As Law&Crime reported, Kayla and her best friend, Nisa Mickens, 15, were
chased down and slaughtered by members of the MS-13 gang on Sept. 13,
2016. The gang members drove up to the girls as they walked near an
elementary school, jumped out of a car and attacked them, then hopped back
in the car and drove off. Nisa�s slashed and beaten body was found that
night. Kayla�s body was discovered the following day behind a house.

The tragedy prompted Rodriguez to become an anti-gang activist. She and
Nisa�s family were invited to appear with then-President Donald Trump in
2018 in a speech titled �What You Need To Know About The Violent Animals
Of MS-13.�

In his campaign against the gang violence, Trump visited Brentwood. At his State of the Union address speaking out against MS-13 that year, Trump recognized Rodriquez and Nisa�s parents. Rodriguez also spoke about the
murder of her daughter during a roundtable on immigration policy with
Trump in 2018 in New York.

https://lawandcrime.com/crime/woman-admits-killing-ms-13-victims-mother- who-was-honored-by-trump-in-the-same-spot-where-her-daughter-was-killed/

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