Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo Fuertes charged with manslaughter in crash that killed teen friend, injured 6 others, Suffolk DA says

Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo Fuertes, the 18-year-old authorities said had been drinking when he crashed his car last month in East Hampton, injuring six friends from East Hampton High School and killing one, was indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter and aggravated vehicular homicide, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

In a news release Wednesday, District Attorney Ray Tierney said Barrionuevo Fuertes' "alleged dangerous and deadly actions" on June 15 — Father’s Day — caused the death of Scarleth Samaniego-Urgiles, a 19-year-old backseat passenger from East Hampton, and seriously injured another backseat passenger. All were in Barrionuevo Fuertes’ 2009 Toyota Camry when it flipped and crashed into a tree on Old Stone Highway in Springs.

"Their summer was about to kick off," Tierney said in the release. "Instead, Father’s Day was turned into an unspeakable tragedy for them and their families."

According to prosecutors, the friends, whose ages ranged from 15 to 19, had visited a beach and were driving on Old Stone Highway in Barrionuevo Fuertes' car — with six passengers in the backseat — when he "allegedly approached a curve in the road at a high rate of speed and ended up driving into the opposite lane where he nearly struck an oncoming vehicle" before leaving the road. Samaniego-Urgiles died at the crash scene. The other passengers were taken to hospitals, one with a spinal fracture and cuts to her hand that prosecutors described as disfiguring. 

Barrionuevo Fuertes, of Moriches, an East Hampton High graduate, faces a 19-count indictment with 8⅓ to 25 years in prison on the top charge of aggravated vehicular homicide, a B felony. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski ordered him held on $500,000 cash, $1,000,000 bond or $5,000,000 partially secured bond. 

In an interview, Barrionuevo Fuertes' lawyer, Melissa Sue Aguanno, said of her client: "They threw everything at him but the kitchen sink ... This is a very, very stiff charge."

He initially was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated under Leandra’s Law, as well as with driving while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child when East Hampton Town police arrested him at the scene.

Barrionuevo Fuertes and his friends had been celebrating a birthday at Maidstone Beach in Springs on the night of the crash, Aguanno said. "There were, I would say, poor decisions made amongst the group." Barrionuevo Fuertes, she said, "had no ill intent. He is devastated."

Aguanno said the blood toxicology test results provided to her by prosecutors showed Barrionuevo Fuertes had a blood-alcohol level of .08, the threshold for aggravated vehicular homicide. She said she did not know how many drinks he had consumed.

He is in the Suffolk County jail in Yaphank, she said. Before the night of the crash, "He was on the right path," she said. "I’m sad for the whole situation and I’m sad for the loss of the young woman."

Samaniego-Urgiles, who was about to graduate East Hampton High before her death, had hoped to join the military, her mother told Newsday last month. "I told her to come home soon," Gabriela Samaniego-Basantes said. "And she never returned to the house."