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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