Adem Nikeziq, a thirty-year-old man from Staten Island, New York, found out only minutes before appearing in court on Monday that his pregnant fiancé, Adriana Sylmetaj, and their unborn baby had died due to a drunk driving crash he caused.
His attorney, Mark Fonte, told the New York Post that he had not been informed of the tragedy until just before entering the court room. Nikeziq was overcome withsadness upon hearing the news and broke down.
The New York City Police stated that Nikeziq was charged with manslaughter, criminal negligent homicide, vehicular assault, assault, DWI, reckless endangerment, and driving while ability impaired by alcohol in the fatal accident. When he entered the court, he was in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital gown.
The police responded to a 911 call of a single-car crash on Hylan Boulevard. The preliminary investigation found that Nikeziq was driving southbound when he lost control of the vehicle and it split into three parts after it struck a wooden utility pole.
He had only minor injuries, but Sylmetaj was pronounced dead at the scene. Her severed leg was found twenty feet away from her body and the baby, who had been ripped from her womb, was found twenty feet away from her leg.
Prosecutors said that the crash happened after a night of drinking and that Nikeziq had been speeding in and out of traffic before the accident.
Judge Raja Rajeswari ordered Nikeziq be held on $400,000 cash bail or $700,000 bond, and he is due back in court on Thursday.