Two Lives, One Tragedy: Lisa Rooney Faces Sentencing

On October 30, 2019, at approximately 6:03 p.m., the lives of two people who lived in Montauk collided, leaving one of them, John James Usma-Quintero, a seasonal guest worker from Colombia, dead on the shoulder of Flamingo Avenue.

The drunk driver who killed him, Lisa R. Rooney, had started drinking that morning while working at The Creeks, Ronald Perelman’s estate in East Hampton Village.

She pleaded guilty in March to manslaughter and vehicular homicide, as well as DWI, and is awaiting sentencing on the charges. Her sentencing has been delayed twice at the request of her attorney, Marc Gann, who declined to comment. She is now scheduled to be sentenced on September 9.

The latest sentencing delay, from July 16, could actually provide some solace to the victim’s family.

Both the victim’s mother, Miryam Quintero Duque, and his older brother, John Fredy Usma-Quintero, want to be present to face Ms. Rooney, and to tell her and the court what the loss of their loved one means to them. They have been unable to travel to the United States from their homes in Armenia in western Colombia because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Mr. Usma-Quintero, known by his friends and family as “James,” and Ms. Rooney lived within a mile of each other — she on the east side of Flamingo Avenue in a Leisurama house in the Culloden Shores neighborhood, purchased by her mother in 1995, and he with his aunt Mercedes Giraldo in an apartment complex occupied mostly by laborers in Montauk.

The two had never met.

While they lived in close proximity, they occupied very different worlds, though they had one thing in common: Both were working three jobs at the time of Mr. Usma-Quintero’s death. But even in that commonality, they were quite different.

He was 28 and a jack-of-all-trades, according to his assistant manager at the Montauk 7-Eleven, Mariana Guanga. “He did a little bit of everything,” she said recently, from working behind the counter, to stocking shelves, to cleaning up.

His aunt had the same memory of him, going back to when they were together in Colombia. He worked as a mechanic, he worked in construction — he did everything, she said recently.

“Don’t kill yourself,” Ms. Guanga remembers warning Mr. Usma-Quintero, afraid he was pushing himself too hard at the 7-Eleven.

He had arrived in the United States under the H-2B work visa program in May 2019. It was his first time in the United States. He was due to return home to his beloved 8-year-old daughter, Sara Usma Tamayo, less than two weeks after his death.

By October 30, 2019, the summer season was over, and his hours at the 7-Eleven had decreased, so he took two more jobs, working in a restaurant in the dock area, as well as landscaping for Peter Joyce, according to his family. He was working as a landscaper on the day he died.

The money he made, he sent back to his mother, as well as to his daughter and her mother, Dina Marcella Tamayo. Though he and his wife were separated, the two remained close friends.

He rarely drank. A beer or two at social gatherings was his limit, Gonzalo Perez, a friend in Montauk who married into the family, said recently.

Alcohol appears to have played a central role in all three of Ms. Rooney’s jobs.

She was a popular bartender at Liar’s Saloon in the dock area of Montauk. The daughter of a New York State Supreme Court Justice, Ms. Rooney also had a business with her sister Cara Rooney, called Girltauk. She described their business model in a 2015 article that appeared in The Sag Harbor Express. “The idea behind Girltauk, originally, was to get the local girls together, drink some wine and have girl talk,” Ms. Rooney said at the time. “And then, on the side, do some shopping and get some cool clothes out of it, too.”

The 2019 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck she was driving when she struck and killed Mr. Usma-Quintero was registered to the Girltauk business.

Her third job was at The Creeks, where she had easy access to alcohol, according to her court testimony in March, when she pleaded guilty in front of State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro.

“I drank at work that morning at Ronald Perelman’s, and I had several drinks,” she told the court.

On the morning of October 30, 2019, Mr. Usma-Quintero woke up early. His aunt, Ms. Giraldo, surprised him with a BLT sandwich. “I remember that last smile. I remember it vividly,” she said recently in Spanish, with Mr. Perez acting as translator.

He left for work that morning, as he did every morning, on his bicycle, which he had bought second-hand after arriving in Montauk. To get to work at the 7-Eleven or to his job as a landscaper, he had to bike up the hill on Flamingo Avenue.

It is a steep hill for a biker, according to Chris Briand, who owns the Montauk Cycle Company on West Lake Drive. The climb is about a mile long in either direction, cresting at North Farragut Avenue. Many bikers stand to make the hill, Mr. Briand said, while others dismount and walk their bicycles to top.

Mr. Usma-Quintero biked that hill, seated, at least twice a day. It kept him in shape. “He was slim,” Mr. Perez remembered.

On that fateful day, a little after sunrise, he met his fellow landscaping workers on the east side of downtown Montauk to begin his workday.

When Ms. Rooney got off from her job at The Creeks, she drove back to Montauk, stopping at The Point, on Main Street. There, she began drinking red wine. When asked in court how many glasses of wine she drank at The Point, she could not remember precisely. “I think it was three,” she told the court.

Mr. Usma-Quintero finished his workday where it had begun, on the east side of downtown Montauk, in front of Peter Joyce’s landscaping company on South Euclid Avenue. It was after 5 p.m.

From there, he bicycled over to the 7-Eleven — passing The Point, where Ms. Rooney was drinking wine.

At the 7-Eleven, he drank a cup of coffee, Ms. Guanga remembered. She again jokingly chided him about working himself too hard.

Coffee finished, Mr. Usma-Quintero got back on his bike, pedaling west, again passing The Point, and Ms. Rooney. The sun began to set. He turned left onto South Edgemere, biking past the train station, where the road becomes Flamingo Avenue. He began climbing that steep hill. He never made it to the top.

Ms. Rooney left The Point with a quantity of cocaine, she told the court. She was in a hurry. According to East Hampton Town Police, she was doing 85 mph in the late-model Silverado up that steep hill. She swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic, then swung back wildly across the road onto the shoulder, where she struck and killed Mr. Usma-Quintero.

She continued on up the hill until she crashed into a guardrail.

She told police she was unaware she had struck a bicyclist. “Is he okay?” she asked.

Since that day, she has been living in her mother’s house in the Murray Hill section of Queens, attending a drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation program.

“You put yourself in that position when you drink all day. Some people say it’s an addiction, but it also is a choice,” the victim’s friend, Mr. Perez said recently about the tragedy.

“Everybody can say, ‘Sorry,’” Mr. Perez added. “She will resume her life. On the other hand, a daughter will grow up without a father, a mother will be without a son, his brother will be without his brother.”