Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Driver in Deadly Wrong-Way Crash Has History of Bad Driving, Records Show

MANHATTAN — The driver who stole a minivan and killed a woman in a wrong-way crash on the Upper West Side Tuesday has been arrested three times in the past year for driving with a suspended license, records show.

Jean Herrera, 23, was driving a stolen Dodge Caravan minivan north in the southbound lane of the Henry Hudson Parkway when he slammed into a Subaru and killed its passenger, Olga Ilina, 54, NYPD officials said. 

Herrera, his passenger and a man who was driving Ilina's Subaru were also injured in the crash, police said.

Herrera, who lives in Washington Heights, has been arrested about 14 times since 2013, including three times in The Bronx over the past year, an NYPD spokesman said. He's due to appear in court for the three latest arrests on Aug. 12, records show.

On July 20, 2015, he was driving a 2002 Honda near East 135th Street and St. Anns Avenue about 3:44 a.m., when NYPD officer Raymon Martinez pulled him over and arrested him for driving with a suspended license, according to a criminal complaint against him.

Herrera told Martinez that he knew his license was suspended, prosecutors said.

The officer arrested him for aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle and the court released him later that day, records show.

Then on Sept. 11, 2015, NYPD officer Edward Bogucki spotted Herrera driving a Honda near Goulden Avenue and West Bedford Park Boulevard about 1:55 a.m., prosecutors said.

"Yeah, I knew my license was suspended," Herrera told Bogucki before getting arrested for driving without a license.

He was released later that day, court records show.

About five months later, he was arrested again when he dropped a stolen dirt bike in the EZ Pass lane of Bronx-Whitestone Bridge Toll Plaza about 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 28, according to NYPD officer Scott Townsend.

Melenciano arrested him for unauthorized use of a vehicle, driving without a license and disorderly conduct.

A judge issued an order of protection, demanding Herrera stay away from the man he stole the dirt bike from, and held him on $2,500 bail, records show.

That bail was then lowered to $1 on March 4, but he was released without bail on March 16, records show.

Herrera was back behind the wheel Tuesday night when he crashed on the Henry Hudson near West 79th Street killed a woman on the Henry Hudson Parkway, police said.

He was arrested for manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and several other traffic crimes, police said. He had not been arraigned as of Thursday morning.