Woman who struck, killed NYPD Detective Anastasios Tsakos sentenced to 27 years
Beauvais, 34, of Hempstead, must also pay a $5,000 fine.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- A Long Island woman convicted in the hit-and-run death of an NYPD detective has been sentenced to 27 years in prison, with an opportunity for parole after 22 1/3 years.
Jessica Beauvais, 34, of Hempstead, must also pay a $5,000 fine.
Beauvais was found guilty last November of aggravated manslaughter and other offenses in the 2021 death of 43-year-old NYPD Detective Anastasios Tsakos.
At her sentencing Wednesday morning, NYPD officers packed the courtroom in a powerful show of solidarity as Detective Tsakos' wife gave an emotional impact statement.
"While Jessica Beauvais was sobering up in a police station that morning, our world was collapsing," Irene Tsakos said. "I had a hard time processing that my strong, beautiful husband was no longer with us. I was in shock to the thought of our children came to mind. And realized I had to go home and tell my babies my favorite person was gone. That broke me."
She also addressed Beauvais directly, saying, "You killed my husband."
Prosecutors say Beauvais admitted drinking and smoking marijuana before getting behind the wheel on April 27, 2021.
Detective Tsakos, a member of the department's highway unit and the father of two children, was directing traffic after a separate crash on the Long Island Expressway when Beauvais sped through the traffic cones in a 2013 Volkswagen Passat and struck the detective.
Tsakos was thrown into the air, landing some 170 feet away on the highway's shoulder, prosecutors said. His left leg was severed from the knee down, and he died at a nearby hospital.
Beauvais fled the scene and was arrested after police chased her for three miles. Two hours after the incident, investigators said, she had a blood alcohol content of .15, well above the legal limit of .08.
Beauvais was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years on the top charge for aggravated manslaughter in the second degree.
She was given an additional 2 1/3 to 7 years to run consecutively on the charge of leaving the scene.
Beauvais originally rejected a plea deal of 16 years.
RELATED: Thousands attend wake for NYPD officer killed in the line of duty
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