Christhian Velasquez Galeano, driver in DWI crash that killed longtime friend, gets up to 22 years in prison

A Long Beach man with multiple drunk driving convictions was sentenced to up to 22 years  in prison on Wednesday for another drinking and driving crime that killed his childhood friend.

Christhian Velasquez Galeano, 28, pleaded guilty in June to vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it, false impersonation, violating the terms of his probation on a 2021 drunken driving conviction and other charges.

Prosecutors charge he was over the legal blood alcohol  limit on Feb. 9 just before 5 a.m. when he crossed into oncoming traffic on Stewart Avenue in Garden City and slammed into a tree on the side of the road, smashing the rear driver's side of his 2007 Nissan Maxima.

Marco Antonio Zuniga, who was riding in the back seat, suffered fatal injuries as Galeano fled with another passenger through the snow and hid in nearby bushes as police and first responders arrived.

Garden City police officers traced the two men’s footprints in the snow half a block away and found Galeano with blood on his hands, authorities said. He tried to evade arrest by giving police false information about his identity, they said.

When he was finally arrested, he refused to give blood without a court order, prosecutors said. Four hours after the crash, his blood alcohol level was still 0.11%, 3 percentage points over the legal limit to drive.

Nassau prosecutor Katie Zizza outlined how Galeano had been caught again and again, going back to his first drunken driving arrest in 2016, getting break after break.

"Every chance given, he wasted," she said.

The victim's sister, Gloriana Bailey, 36, the oldest of four siblings, was nine months pregnant when her brother was killed. She said her family feared the stress of the tragedy would send her into labor.

"It broke me," she told the court. "It broke my family."

Bailey recalled her brother as a loving, generous man who would rescue animals and send her and her siblings into hysterics with his antics.

"I’m pretty sure that Marco would not leave his friend alone," she told Galeano. "He was raised with values ... These so-called friends left him to die alone. Alone! What cowards! Man up, be a man and own your mistakes. That’s the least you can do."

Galeano said he agreed with Bailey.

"With all the heaviness in my heart, I give my sincere condolences to the family," he said, recalling he’d known Zuniga since he was 16 years old. "I know I lost a good friend, and you all lost a son, a brother and a father. You have my apologies, I know I won’t be forgiven, but may God forgive me for what I have done."

Supreme Court Justice Caryn Fink questioned Galeano’s remorse, noting when he heard his plea offer, he said, "I’m facing 9 to 22 years as if I pulled the trigger."

"You set into motion the death of your friend," the judge said. "Your act of driving under the influence had the same repercussions as pulling the trigger. You killed someone."

Fink, who had presided over Galeano’s previous drunken driving trial, recalled the sentencing in that case when a victim told the court about her injuries.

"You expressed your remorse and said it would never happen again," the judge said. "But here we are."