Family Of Victim On Hand As Lisa Rooney Is Sentenced

The Montauk woman whose drunken, reckless actions behind the wheel of a late-model pickup caused the death of John James Usma Quintero, a Colombian guest worker on October 30, 2019, was sentenced to 3 to 9 years in state prison on Thursday, September 9.

For Lisa R. Rooney, now 32, it was the first time over her almost two years of court appearances that she has been able to look the dead man’s family face-to-face. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, his brother, Fredy Usma Quintero, and mother, Miryam Quintero Duque, had not been allowed to travel to the United States from their homes Colombia. On Thursday, the brother spoke directly to Ms. Rooney in front of New York State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro. Ana Kestler, court interpreter, provided the English to Mr. Usma Quintero’s Spanish.

Ms. Rooney looked at him as he spoke.

On the day Ms. Rooney struck Mr. Usma Quintero, 28, she killed two people, the dead man’s brother told her. “Because my mother has been in agony since,” he said. At that moment, Ms. Quintero Duque, who was seated in the back of the courtroom, one of the largest in the building, began weeping uncontrollably. She continued weeping as her oldest son went on addressing Ms. Rooney. When he finished, he helped his sobbing mother out of the courtroom.

The Press spoke with Ms. Quintero Duque on Wednesday evening, the day before sentencing. She had arrived in the country on Labor Day, and is returning home to Armenia, Colombia, in the next couple of days, with the District Attorney Tim Sini’s office providing transportation. On Wednesday evening, a neighbor of Mercedes Giraldo, a cousin who lives in Montauk with whom Ms. Quintero Duque has been staying, acted as translator.

“I didn’t believe it,” she said about the day she heard the news of her youngest son’s death. In life, “he was a good, happy person. He had a sense of humor,” she said. She could not imagine him dead.

“Now, it is very, very hard because now I am in this country and it is real. My son is dead. I went to the place where he died. Now I know my son is dead,” she said.

She said about her dead son’s young daughter, Sarah Usma Tamayo, “It is hard. She suffers a lot. She is still waiting for her father to call her back. She believes her father is in heaven and is watching over her.”

Mr. Usma Quintero had come to Montauk as a guest worker. He sent almost all the money he earned back home to Colombia, to support his mother, who is poor, as well as his daughter. He came to the United States as a guest worker because work in his home in Armenia, Colombia, was scarce.

Ms. Rooney’s mother, Bruna L. DiBiase, herself an acting New York State Supreme Court Justice in the Criminal Courts division in Queens, was in the courtroom for her daughter’s sentencing as well, along with Ms. Rooney’s friends and family.

Thursday was the first time since Ms. Rooney was indicted that at least a dozen supporters of Mr. Usma Quintero were on hand. “It was important to be here,” Cesar Tubatan said. “I took the day off from work.”

In her daughter’s case, Justice DiBiase’s legal influence stopped at the courthouse door, Ms. Rooney’s lead attorney, Marc Gann, said Wednesday. Justice DiBiase “has made sure to be meticulous about staying in the background, supporting Lisa without even giving the appearance of exerting any kind of influence,” Mr. Gann said.

Ms. Rooney’s legal team bristled after sentencing at the suggestion that Ms. Rooney could be perceived as a person of privilege, as opposed to Mr. Usma Qunitero. Another attorney working on Ms. Rooney’s behalf told a reporter afterwards, without identifying himself, “You have no clue as to what this woman has been through,” meaning Ms. Rooney. “If you did, you would never, ever say that.”

A reporter had mentioned the possible perception of privilege during a pre-sentencing hearing on a press request to be allowed to photograph the actual sentencing. The media request was denied by Justice Ambro.

The facts of the case are not in dispute. Ms. Rooney began drinking at work the morning of October 30. She continued drinking throughout the day, ending up at The Point, a bar and grill on Montauk’s Main Street. Just as the sun set, she left, in possession of a quantity of small packets of cocaine.

Headed north up the steep hill on Flamingo Avenue toward either her home in Culloden Shores or the dock area where she worked another job as a bartender, she pushed the accelerator on her 2019 Chevrolet Silverado hard, hitting 85 mph going up a steep hill, prosecuting attorney James Curtin said Thursday.

She lost control of the truck, swinging first into the oncoming lane of traffic, then across the road onto the shoulder of the northbound lane, where she struck and killed Mr. Usma Quintero, who was bicycling home after working that day as a landscaper. The pickup continued traveling on the shoulder until it crashed into a guardrail at least 30 yards away.

After the accident, police described the bicycle that Mr. Usma Quintero was riding as “demolished.” He was declared dead upon arrival at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

It was 17 minutes past sunset when Mr. Usma Quintero was struck and killed.

Mr. Gann pleaded for consideration of Ms. Rooney as a victim of domestic violence in asking for a lighter sentence. He said that she was abused by a live-in boyfriend identified only as “Hank,” which he said played a part in her actions on October 30.

Mr. Gann also said that Ms. Rooney was working for an abusive boss. Ms. Rooney had told the court when she entered her guilty plea on March 19 that she began drinking on October 30 at her job on Ronald Perelman’s estate. She also worked at Liar’s Saloon in Montauk.

Mr. Curtin responded to Mr. Gann’s argument by saying that that abusive relationship Ms. Rooney was involved in with a boyfriend had ended months before the incident and that the judge had been made aware of all mitigating factors when he agreed to the 3-to-9-year sentence.

Mr. Gann repeated an argument in court about Ms. Rooney that he had made on the phone Wednesday when he said, “She has suffered significantly in her life,” pointing out that she had lost a brother, as well. “She has expressed extreme remorse and has written to the family to express that. She has done everything she can to try and redeem herself from the conduct that led her to take someone’s life, and lives with that every day. And will never forget him. She has tattooed his name onto her hand.”

Ms. Rooney read a long statement meant for Mr. Usma Quintero’s family in English. The immediate family only speaks Spanish. “I want you to know the depth of remorse I feel for my actions. I have wished for so long to be able to see you face-to-face and tell you how very sorry I am for your not having John in your lives … What I did altered your lives forever.” She wept as she spoke. “I feel that it should have been me that night, and not John.”

Justice Ambro was not moved by Mr. Gann’s arguments for a possible reduced sentence. He told Ms. Rooney he was sentencing her, not for what she has done since the accident, but for what she did on October 30, 2019. He said that she had a history of binge drinking day after day for many years to the point of unconsciousness. “You literally numbed yourself with alcohol and with the addition of cocaine, you fell apart.”

A court officer stepped forward and asked Ms. Rooney to put her hands behind her back as he handcuffed her while the judge read the sentence for each of the four charges she had pleaded guilty to. On the charge of aggravated vehicular homicide, he said “3 to 9 years.” The other felony she pleaded to, manslaughter, brought a 2-to-4-year sentence. The two misdemeanor charges she had pleaded to, possession of cocaine and drunken, driving each brought a sentence of 364 days.

All sentences are to run concurrent, that is, at the same time.