The driver who killed a pregnant woman and her new husband in a hit-and-run crash in 2013 is facing life in prison after a jury found him guilty on Friday of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Julio Acevedo was also found guilty of two counts of leaving the scene of a crash for smashing his Bavarian Motor Works ride into the livery cab carrying Nathan and Raizy Glauber, both 21, to a hospital. Friends and family of the young couple say that justice has been served, but that no prison sentence could be long enough to make up for Acevedo’s reckless driving, and his fleeing to Pennsylvania.
“Julio Acevedo is not only a murderer who killed the Glauber couple and their unborn child, but is also a coward for leaving the scene and the state for four days,” said family friend and spokesman Isaac Abraham. “I would give him three times life. He took three lives, and the issue of the baby did not really even come up in court.”
Acevedo was speeding at about 70 miles an hour down Kent Avenue early on the morning of March 3, 2013 when he crashed into the cab at Wilson Avenue, prosecutors said. The newlyweds died, and the cabbie suffered minor injuries. Medical personnel delivered the baby and he survived for a day after his parents had died, according to reports.
Acevedo hopped out of his car momentarily to view the carnage, then fled, the District Attorney’s Office said. Police arrested him in Pennsylvania four days later.
Acevedo’s lengthy criminal history, including a manslaughter rap for the 1987 killing of stickup artist Kelvin “50 Cent” Martin, whose nickname the famed rapper took for his own, makes the charges carry 25 years to life imprisonment.
Acevedo’s lawyer said he does not believe the conviction was appropriate given the evidence, and that he plans to ask the judge to overturn the conviction at the March 18 sentencing.
“Our argument is that speeding alone is not enough to rise to the level of reckless or negligent conduct,” said attorney Scott Brettschneider. “We believe we have very strong grounds for getting this overturned, and if not that, then an appeal.”
