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LI Woman Gets 20 Years For Killing NYPD Cop In Hit-And-Run

“Her license had been suspended, she was drunk and had smoked marijuana,” said Queens’ DA of Jessica Beauvais, who was sentenced Wednesday.

Patch Staff

A car driven by Jessica Beauvais the night she killed NYPD Det. Anastasios Tsakos, prosecutors said.
A car driven by Jessica Beauvais the night she killed NYPD Det. Anastasios Tsakos, prosecutors said. ((Queens District Attorney’s Office) (Steve Sanchez/Pacific Press/Shutterstock))

QUEENS, NY — A Long Island woman will spend more than 20 years behind bars for killing an NYPD officer during a drunken hit-and-run in Queens, prosecutors said.

Jessica Beauvais, 35, received back-to-back sentences Wednesday from a judge for her convictions on manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crash charges.

The consecutive prison terms — 20 years for manslaughter and at least 2 years and four months for a hit-and-run — stem from the April 2021 death of Det. Anastasio Tsakos, who Beauvais plowed down on the Long Island Expressway.

“Her license had been suspended, she was drunk and had smoked marijuana,” said Melinda Katz, district attorney for Queens, of Beauvais.

“For everyone’s safety and wellbeing, including her own, the defendant should not have been behind the wheel of a car.”

The deadly crash unfolded early April 27, 2021, as Tsakos responded to a fatal crash on near an entrance ramp to the Clearview Expressway, authorities said.

Tsakos stood at a road block as Beauvais, of Hempstead, drunkenly sped through traffic cones and struck him, sending his body flying 170 feet through the air, prosecutors said. He died at a nearby hospital.

Beauvais sped off, only to be stopped three miles away by a police cruiser that she also hit, prosecutors said.

Her blood-alcohol content tested two hours at 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit for driving, authorities said.

Tsakos’ death was mourned both his fellow NYPD officers and his Long Island community members, who both formed a crowd of tens of thousands that lined the roads leading to his church for a funeral procession.

Beauvais’ trial two years later ended with jurors finding her guilty of aggravated manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting.

“I hope today’s sentence provides at least some closure for the detective’s loved ones,” Katz said, in a statement.

Credit Queens Patch