A real "kill story"
http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-lishot033204197apr03.story
Murder Charges in Accident
DA: Duo’s drag race took lives of couple
By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Andrew Smith
STAFF WRITERS
April 3, 2003
Two young drivers whose speeding cars crashed into a third vehicle, killing a couple in Muttontown in June, have been indicted by a grand jury on murder charges, a Nassau prosecutor said yesterday.
Blake Slade, 20, of 206 Brookville Rd., Muttontown, and Kyle Soukup, 18, of 5 Woodedge Lane, Brookville [CORRECTION: Based on incorrect information from Nassau County police, a story yesterday misstated the address for Kyle Soukup, one of two men indicted on second-degree murder charges stemming from an automobile crash. Soukup's address is 3 Woodedge Lane in Brookville. pg. A20 NS 4/4/03], were each arraigned yesterday in Mineola on two counts of second-degree murder under circumstances evincing "depraved indifference to human life."
"Their conduct was so egregious. They showed enough disregard for human lives that we felt the murder charges were appropriate," Assistant District Attorney Michael Walsh said in an interview after the brief court appearance.
Slade and Soukup, who are free on bail - Slade's was set at $100,000 and Soukop's at $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond - pleaded not guilty before Court of Claims Justice Alan Honorof. Their attorneys said the crash was a tragic accident and the men are sorry for it.
Police said on June 10, Slade was driving a 2002 Mercedes and Soukup was driving a 2000 Corvette. Both men were headed north on Route 106 when their cars slammed into a 1993 Jeep carrying Sophia Bretous, 23, and her fiance, Jean Desir, 31, as the couple's car turned left onto Muttontown Road. The two cars struck the Jeep with such force it split in two, police said. According to Walsh, the men were driving at more than twice the legal limit of 55 mph in a neighborhood where there are homes with driveways abutting the road. Witnesses said the men were driving side-by-side as they increased speed, which Walsh said indicated they were engaging in a speeding contest.
John Kase of Garden City, attorney for Slade, said murder charges are usually reserved for the most heinous crimes and should not be used in this case to prosecute two young men who have never been in trouble with the law before. "I am dismayed. This was clearly an accident and to escalate it to murder, in my opinion, is a stretch," Kase said yesterday.
Kase also complained that District Attorney Denis Dillon's office increasingly has used murder with "depraved indifference to human life" to prosecute defendants in fatal automobile crashes. "There is criticism in some judicial circles of the use of this statute," said Kase. "We plan on fighting this tooth and nail."
Fred Klein, chief of the district attorney's Major Offense Bureau, said such prosecutions are "very rare" and he could not recall Dillon's office ever bringing a murder charge stemming from a car accident before.
Slade, who was a student at Tulane University in New Orleans at the time of the crash, has since transferred to Hofstra University, Kase said. Slade made the move, Kase said, so he could be closer to home while the criminal case against him unfolds.
Soukup's attorney, Stephen Scaring of Garden City, did not return calls seeking comment.
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