Old Stone Highway, East Hampton · Sunday, June 15, 2025 (Father's Day), about 7:39 p.m.
An 18-year-old from Moriches was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison for a drunk-driving crash in East Hampton that killed Scarleth Samaniego-Urgiles, 19, of East Hampton, one of six teenagers riding in the back seat of his car.
What happened
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney and the defendant's admissions at his plea, Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo Fuertes drove a group of teenagers, ages 15 to 19, to a beach in East Hampton, where they drank. He then drove them away in his 2009 Toyota Camry with six passengers in the back seat, including a 15-year-old. Heading south on Old Stone Highway, he took a curve at high speed, crossed into the other lane, nearly hit an oncoming car, left the road and hit a tree. The car rolled onto its side.
Ms. Samaniego-Urgiles was killed. Another passenger suffered a spinal fracture and serious injuries to her hand. The car's event data recorder showed 74 miles an hour seconds before the crash in a 30 mile-an-hour zone. East Hampton Town Police arrested him at the scene, and he consented to a blood test that showed a BAC of .08.
The plea and the sentence
On February 11, 2026, he pleaded guilty before Acting Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski to charges including aggravated vehicular homicide (a class B felony), second-degree manslaughter, aggravated vehicular assault, aggravated DWI with a child under Leandra's Law (a class E felony), DWI, and endangering the welfare of a child. On March 18, 2026, he was sentenced to 4 to 12 years.
What the case shows
.08 is enough. A BAC of exactly .08 is DWI per se in New York. It is not a high-BAC case, but a crash that kills one person and seriously injures another is an aggravating factor on its own, so a .08 still supported aggravated vehicular homicide.
A 15-year-old passenger made it a Leandra's Law case. Driving while intoxicated with a passenger 15 or younger is a class E felony by itself, even with no crash.
Young drivers face more. Drivers under 21 also face New York's zero-tolerance rules, which suspend a license at a BAC as low as .02, although at .08 the charge is DWI like anyone else's. Speed was the other half of this case: the event data recorder is what proved recklessness.
Related: felony DWI and Leandra's Law · will I go to jail for a DWI?
This article is drawn from public court filings, official releases and news reports, and is provided for general information only. A charge is an accusation, not proof of guilt. Every person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. Nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case, and nothing here is legal advice.