Judge reduces sentence for former corrections officer convicted in road rage death
BRIDGEPORT – A Superior Court judge Wednesday shortened the sentence of a former corrections officer convicted of ramming her car into that of a woman and her young son, killing the woman nearly eight years ago.
The once defiant Patricia Daniels, broke into tears as she begged Superior Court Judge John Kavanewsky Jr. to give her another chance.
During the trial Daniels claimed she didn’t drive into the car of Evelyn Agyei on Boston Avenue on Dec. 4, 2014. But on Wednesday, as she faced the judge, she took responsibility for Agyei’s death.
“Back then I was in denial for my crime. I truly believed law enforcement got it wrong because I was a corrections officer for 17 years,” she told the judge. She said she now knows she was mentally ill at the time.
Convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter, misconduct with a motor vehicle, risk of injury to a child and evading responsibility, Daniels, 53, was sentenced in February 2017 to 20 years, suspended after 16 years in prison and followed by five years of probation.
Kavanewsky agreed there is an aggregate of facts supporting a change in Daniels’ circumstances.
He resentenced her to 17 years, suspended after she serves 13 years in prison and followed by five years’ probation. Because of the time she has already been in prison she could be released in eight years.
The resentencing was ordered by the state Supreme Court which earlier ruled that Daniels should have been sentenced under the charge of intentional manslaughter rather than the charge of reckless manslaughter the trial judge had sentenced her on.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Durso had urged the judge to reimpose the original sentence.
“There has to be a severe punishment for what she did. She took a life and injured a child,” the prosecutor told the judge.
But Assistant Public Defender Laila Haswell argued that an 8-year term would be more appropriate.
On the morning of Dec. 4, Agyei was driving her son to school on Boston Avenue when police said Daniels crossed into their lane and rammed the back of Agyei’s Subaru.
Agyei died at the scene. Her son suffered eye and neck injuries.
Daniels sped off and went to St. Vincent’s Medical Center, where she later checked herself into the psychiatric unit.