Dangerous Roads newsletter: Terrible choices in 20s reverberate through life

My 20s may have been the most consequential period of my life. Between the age of 20 and 29, I graduated college, began my career at Newsday, got married and bought my house. Like so many adults, the course for the rest of my life was dictated by that 10-year span, when I was old enough to make adult decisions, but young enough to get a lot of them wrong.

Having made a terrible decision, Matthew Smith will likely spend his 20s in a prison cell.

Smith, of Hauppauge, will be sentenced to 7⅓ to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges in the drunken driving death of Nassau County Police Officer Patricia Espinosa.

After a night of barhopping and illegally purchasing drinks before he turned 21, Smith drove erratically at more than twice the speed limit, ran a red light and slammed his 2017 Chevrolet Silverado pickup into Espinosa's 2019 Alfa Romeo on Route 347 in Lake Grove. Smith’s blood alcohol level 40 minutes after the crash was more than twice the legal limit.

A nine-year police veteran, Espinosa, 42, was on her way to work in Nassau’s Fifth Precinct. She left behind her husband, Francisco Malaga, also a Nassau cop, and their 2-year-old daughter, Mia.

Although the sentence Smith agreed to in his plea deal was just shy of the maximum penalty of 8⅓ to 25 years if he was convicted at trial, it surely doesn’t seem like nearly enough to those who knew and loved Espinosa, including the many police officers who gathered in the Riverhead courtroom to witness Smith accept his guilt.

"This family is destroyed," Thomas Shevlin, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, said after the court hearing. "You want to talk about closure? There’s no closure. Patty is gone forever."

It’s difficult to objectively say what, exactly, the appropriate punishment is for a crime with such devastating consequences. But, this much is certain: the damage that Smith has done to his own life — much less to others — will extend far beyond his eventual parole date. It will be apparent in the professional, and personal, opportunities that will no longer be available to him when he is released, potentially in his 30s. And, of course, it will be apparent in all the opportunities he misses spending his early adulthood locked up.

Simply put, whatever age he is when he comes out of prison, Matthew Smith’s life from that point on will be very different from the one he would have had if he didn’t drive drunk on that January night.

But at least he’ll have one to live.

Readers speak up

Like many other readers who have reached out, this one takes issue with the name of Newsday’s Dangerous Roads project.

It is not the roads that are dangerous but it is the drivers who believe they own the roads and [have] no respect for following the laws. It is seldom that I see a these drivers pulled off as there are no police there. Most people, if they can, are driving way over the speed limit and winding in and out of traffic and cutting people off very close to get into another lane! It is a very big problem! I fear for new drivers!

Edith Rae Brown, Glen Head

Changing newsletter

We're expanding this newsletter to address transportation concerns beyond dangerous roads. From trains to planes to buses to bikes to ferries — if it helps you get around Long Island, we're on it. Send us your suggestions for topics you’d like to see covered to roads@newsday.com.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.