By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A Bronx mother who pleaded guilty to killing an 11-year-old Chelsea girl in a tragic drunken driving wreck on the Henry Hudson Parkway was sentenced Friday to a minumum of four years in prison.
Carmen Huertas, 32, offered a teary apology to the family of Leandra Rosado and six other girls, some of whom were badly injured in the crash, but the sentencing judge still imposed a punishment on the higher end of the sentencing range.
"I do not understand how someone could drink and get into that car with all these young girls," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said Friday.
"It's almost like you're asking for a tragedy," the judge said.
"It's just inconceivable on many levels" that Huertas would do what she did given persistent public warnings about the "dangers of drunk driving," he added.
Huertas was sentenced to four to 12 years on Friday. She was told in August that in exchange for her guilty plea to manslaughter and other charges pertaining to Rosado's death and the injuries to the other children she would receive a sentence less than the maximum of five to 15 years in prison.
Huertas admitted to drinking cognac at a family member's party in Chelsea before taking the wheel and driving at nearly 70 miles an hour with a car full of her daughter's friends.
Prosecutors said she even taunted the children, telling them to "raise your hand" if they thought she would crash — an eerie precursor to the horrors that would unfold minutes later when the car flipped on the highway.
Leandra, who was not wearing a seat belt because she was sitting in the back carriage of a station wagon, was ejected from the vehicle and killed.
"Your honor, I want to share my deepest sympathy and my sincerest apology to the those who have been forever scarred by my conduct," Huertas began in her statement, adding "Leandra was a smart, beautiful and funny girl."
"I am not a monster — I am a loving mother who made a horrible decision that caused the loss of an innocent child and injured others," the mother of two insisted.
But prosecutors wanted the harshest sentence the court would consider for Huertas, four to 15 years considering statutory restrictions and the judge's promise that he would not give her the max.
"Right now Leandra Rosado should be at school ... with her friends and the only thing on her and her father's mind could be what is is going to be for Halloween this weekend," Assistant District Attorney Christopher Ryan said.
"We should not be here talking about what we should do with the person who killed her, but unfortunately here we are," the prosecutor added.
Rosado's father, who raised Leandra as a single parent, said Friday's sentencing provided a measure of closure for their family.
But the loss, Lenny Rosado said, still haunts him daily along with the nagging pain of missing his only child.
"The most precious gift I ever received in my life was taken away from me that very morning," said Rosado, who at one point emphatically raised an enlarged school portrait of Leandra.
"I lost my best friend — my Friday night Blockbuster date. My parents lost their only grandchild. My brother his only niece," the grieving father said in a statement to the court.
"I lost my only child and her name was Leandra Rosado — my princess," he added, on Friday, the same day Leandra would have turned 12.
The young girl's death inspired state lawmakers to pass stricter drunken driving laws in New York State as part of a piece of legislation named "Leandra's Law."
As of Aug. 15, all drunken driving offenders are required to install an "ignition interlock" device on their vehicles, which requires the driver to pass a breathalyzer test each time they attempted to start the car.
Another provision of the law makes it a felony to drive while intoxicated with children in the car in New York state.
Leandra's father aggressively pushed for the Leandra's Law bill within weeks of his daughter's death, but he says he still hopes to see the law passed at the federal level.
"I promised my daughter, I'm not done yet," Rosado told reporters after the sentencing. "I'm taking Leandra's Law nation-wide."
It was unclear how many of the other children who were injured, other than Huertas' own daughter, Brittney, were present at the sentencing.
At least one other child, Kayla Fernandez, now 12, was there with her mother Melody Sanchez, who has been supporting Lenny Rosado and has been at many Huertas' court appearances over the past year.
"It's hard," said Kayla, who was badly injured in the crash.
"We're recovering, we're coming along," her mother added.
