BREEZY POINT — A driver who crashed a stolen car and left two injured friends — one of whom later died from his injuries — on the road before fleeing pleaded guilty Tuesday in exhange for five years probation and having his license revoked for six months.
Dylan Anderson, 24, is also expected to enter an in-house drug treatment program, although the judge did not clarify if drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.
Anderson pleaded guilty to a felony for leaving the scene of an accident in the May 31 crash that killed his friend, Thomas Rorke, and injured another friend, Kevin Klein.
Anderson, who turned himself into police earlier this month, told Judge Dorothy Chin-Brandt in Queens Criminal Court that he hopped into the driver's seat of a 2008 BMW after leaving the Blarney Pub at 3:50 a.m. on May 31.
The car did not belong to him or anyone else in the vehicle and had been left running inside the large shopping center where the Blarney Pub is located, he said.
Another friend, John McCarthy, sat "shotgun" while Rorke and Klein hopped in the back, he said.
He then drove out of the shopping center and made a right on to Rockaway Point Boulevard, driving about a mile east.
While making a U-turn near Beach 210th Street, he crashed the car into a fire hydrant, which caused Klein and Rorke to be ejected from the back seat, according to police.
Anderson fled the scene, and didn't report the crash.
"After the collision Thomas Rorke and Kevin Klein were ejected from the vehicle, and you left them lying on the roadway?" prosecutor Kristin Papadopoulos asked in court.
Anderson said yes.
Rorke, a reservist with the United States Marine Corps since 2010, died June 3 from his injuries. His family did not speak Tuesday in court during sentencing.
Klein was hospitalized after the crash but his current condition is not known.
Anderson's lawyer, Jonathan Strauss, declined to comment. Anderson and his mother also declined to comment.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the plea hearing as the final sentencing.
