Sentencing And Sadness After An Amagansett Woman’s Death

The West Babylon man who struck and killed an Amagansett woman along Montauk Highway late on the morning of January 13, then fled the scene, eventually taking an Uber home to avoid detection by police, was sentenced to 16 months to four years in state prison on Wednesday, December 8.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Cronin had asked for some additional time to be served on the felony charge of fleeing the scene of an accident where there was a serious injury or fatality. An additional felony charge of tampering with evidence was dismissed, in satisfaction of the top-charge felony guilty plea.

But an avenue was left open during the sentencing that could allow the defendant, Mark A. Carrado, 29, to serve almost none of that sentence behind bars.

At the time of the accident, Yuris Murillo Cruz, 36, was pushing a baby carriage with her 1-year-old son, Gael Murillo Cruz, inside, walking east on the south side of the wide shoulder on Montauk Highway near her home in Amagansett. She had just picked up her 5-year-old daughter, Michelle Murillo Cruz, who police said was also in the stroller, from her morning prekindergarten session at Amagansett School on Main Street.

It was a walk the victim had taken, out of necessity, often. Their apartment was less than 200 yards away from where Murillo was struck by Carrado’s pickup truck and killed.

Corrado surrendered to police more than five hours after the incident. He had ditched the pickup he was driving in a small Beach Hampton wooded lot, stripped the vehicle of all identifying documents, including the license plates, and escaped in an Uber he had called, fully aware that he had struck a pedestrian.

After getting home, he later told police, he smoked a marijuana blunt, something he does often to alleviate his pain from an undisclosed prior injury, then put the blunt out and eventually dialed 911. The call came in about four hours after the incident. He was not interviewed until more than six hours after the accident.

The victim’s husband, Wilson Murillo, spoke both before and after Mr. Corrado’s sentencing outside the courtroom of New York State Supreme Court Justice John Collins.

Before Justice Collins pronounced sentence, both Murillo and Corrado also addressed the court — and, to an extent, each other.

“I don’t understand why he did it,” Murillo told the court through a court interpreter. “If he had stopped, my wife would have survived.”

Then he said, “I wouldn’t have him go to jail, but justice must be served, and that is the way we learn.” He added, “I go to church a lot, and that helps me. I have many American friends who help me.”

Murillo has attended each of Corrado’s in-person court sessions over this past year. In an interview outside after the sentencing, he said that he now gets up every day at 6 a.m. to prepare his daughter for school, including cooking her breakfast and lunch, and packing her school tools and lunchbox. He then takes his son to the East Hampton Early Childhood Center. This service costs him $250 per week, he said.

He said he works as many hours a day as possible. Even though it is offseason, his landscaping company still has work on two properties in particular.

Being a single parent is a difficult balancing act, he said, tending to his children’s needs while also working to put bread on the table.

He is originally from Ecuador, while his wife was from El Salvador. His wife was the bedrock of the family, he told the court. “Then I got the call that day. My wife was dead.”

At one point, he told the court, “I would like for him to tell me why, what happened? I still don’t understand.”

When Murillo finished speaking, Collins told him, “I am very sorry for the loss of your beautiful wife.” To ensure that Murillo understood everything being said during the sentencing process, Collins instructed the court interpreter to sit with Murillo in the audience.

Corrado was placed in handcuffs before he addressed the court. Prepared to be incarcerated, he was dressed in blue sweats.

He told the court and Murillo that not a day goes by that he does not think of the damage he has done to the family of Murillo Cruz. He said that he would keep the family in his “thoughts and prayers” throughout his sentence and for the rest of his life.

Collins said before pronouncing sentence that he believed, in the time he has observed Corrado in court, that he is truly remorseful and repentant, and that he would have plenty of time to “contemplate” during his “year away” the consequences of his actions.

The legal door left slightly ajar through which Corrado could end up serving significantly less of his sentence behind bars was first brought up when Corrado entered his guilty plea on November 10. At that time, Collins mentioned an “impassioned plea” that Corrado’s attorney, Jeremy Mis, had made on his behalf.

Collins had said then, “I also told Mr. Mis if the Department of Correctional Services saw fit to offer you any programs albeit for mental health or any type of treatment, I would not stand in the way of the Department of Correctional Services offering you those programs.”

Collins reiterated that point during sentencing, saying he would neither advocate for or against such programs being applied to Corrado.

According to Mis, one of the programs Corrado could apply for is the state prison system’s Shock program, a 90-day drug treatment boot camp program, currently run in a couple of New York State prison facilities, including Willard in Seneca County, in the Finger Lakes region.

The New York State Penitentiary website describes the Shock program and Willard: “Willard Drug Treatment Campus (Willard DTC) is a secure facility for males and females 18 years of age or older. Individuals sentenced to class C, D and E drug felonies and certain class D and E non-drug felonies.”

The crime Corrado pleaded guilty to was a Class D non-violent felony.

After the boot camp, if the inmate is considered rehabilitated, he or she can be released to serve the rest of their sentence on parole.

Corrado will now be quarantined for two weeks in county jail, according to the county sheriff’s office, a COVID protocol since he has been free since his arrest January 13. Leaving the scene of an accident in which there is a death in not considered a crime that requires bail under New York States bail laws that went into place last year.

After that quarantine period, any applications made by Corrado for programs like Shock at Willard or other state facilities will be considered by the correctional authorities. Whatever that decision is, he will then be sent to an upstate facility. He was also fined $2,500 as part of his sentencing.

Murillo said afterward, around noon, as he walked through the rain toward his car in the parking lot of the courthouse in Riverside, “I feel very sorry for him, but he needed this. He needed this. We lived in East Hampton for 20 years. Lots of people walk there. Something like this never happened.”

He was asked why he thought Corrado fled the scene after the accident. Murillo said, “I don’t understand. Maybe he was drunk. Maybe he was smoking. Something like that.”

Because of the time lapse between the accident and his initial contact with police, and possibly because Corrado told police he had smoked a blunt afterward, blood was never drawn to test for drugs.