Makeda McDonald, 28, was arrested Monday on a criminally negligent homicide charge from a high-speed 2022 crash on the Cross Island Parkway.
Matt Troutman,Patch Staff
QUEENS, NY — A Philadelphia woman faces a manslaughter charge after prosecutors said she drove 123 mph before a 2022 Queens crash that killed her cousin and left her aunt seriously injured.
Makeda McDonald, 28, turned herself in to police Monday for arrest and arraignment on a four-count indictment.
Prosecutors said McDonald recklessly drove along the Cross Island Parkway in a crash killed her cousin Moesha McLaughlin, 24, and left her aunt, Nyasha Turnbull, 32, with grievous injuries.
“A life has been cut short and a family left heartbroken because the defendant, as alleged, drove at nearly two and-half times the speed limit,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, in a statement.
The crash unfolded during an April 8, 2022, rainstorm as McDonald drove a 2017 Mercedes GLA south along the Cross Island Parkway, authorities said.
As McDonald sped toward a split in the highway with exit ramps for the Southern State Parkway and Belt Parkway, she drove onto a grass median and hit a guardrail, authorities said.
The impact launched the car into the air, causing it to roll several times, hit an overhead light pole and a gantry that held an overhead road sign before it came to rest on its roof, prosecutors said.
McLaughlin, who was pinned in the backseat, was pronounced dead of her injuries in a local hospital, authorities said.
Turnbull suffered injuries to her lung, liver, arm shoulder and pelvis, authorities said.
Both lived in Rosedale, prosecutors said.
McDonald faces charges of criminally negligent homicide, reckless driving, driving in excess of the maximum speed limit and operating a vehicle at unreasonable speed.
She faces up to four years in prison, if convicted.
Credit: Patch
