Maritime student convicted in fatal DWI crash that left 4 dead: report

“It was a situation where a good person made a horrible decision that cost the lives of four of his best friends.” —DA Robert Granger.

June 8, 2024, 9:25 p.m. EDT | Update June 8, 2024, 9:33 p.m. EDT

NORTH BABYLON, N.Y. — A North Babylon resident and former Maritime Academy student who was driving under the influence when he crashed an SUV in Maine and killed four other students in 2022 pleaded guilty to manslaughter Friday, according to AP Press.

Joshua Goncalves-Radding pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated drunk driving, the outlet reported.

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He was sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter at his sentencing in a Hancock County court, according to the report.

The judge also suspended Goncalves-Radding's license for 10 years, according to News Center Maine.

Goncalves-Radding was 20 years old when the accident happened. He was driving a 2013 Range Rover around 2 a.m. on Dec. 10 in the small town of Castine, Maine, when the vehicle crashed into a tree and burst into flames, Patch reported in 2023.

According to evidence presented at trial, the vehicle was traveling between 106 mph and 111 mph when the accident occurred.

Four passengers, also students, all died, police said. They were identified as Brian Kenealy, 20, of York, Maine; Chase Fossett, 21, of Gardiner, Maine; Luke Simpson, 22, of Rockport, Massachusetts; and Riley Ignacio-Cameron, 20, of Aquinnah, Massachusetts.

The accident occurred after students were discharged following the last day of classes of the semester.

Gonclaves-Radding was indicted by a grand jury in April 2023 after investigators concluded he was speeding and under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, officials said.

He later pleaded not guilty to 17 charges, including four counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of aggravated OUI, two counts of reckless driving with a dangerous weapon, three counts of driving to endanger and one count each of criminal speeding, counterfeiting and illegal drug use. license, Hancock County Prosecutor Robert Granger told Patch.

At his sentencing, Goncalves-Radding made a “moving statement” and apologized to the victims' families, the AP Press reported.

According to the outlet, Fossett's parents “asked for a more lenient sentence and hugged him in tears during the break.”

“No one wanted this to happen,” Laura Fossett said in the report.

“It was a situation where a good person made a horrible decision that cost the lives of four of his best friends,” Granger said, according to the Washington Post. “No sentence that the state or the court could impose can compete with the sentence that he imposed on himself and that the accused recounts every day when he wakes up: he realizes that he killed his four best friends and injured two others. »