Unlicensed driver from Mount Vernon ends up in prison after fatal high-speed crash

MOUNT VERNON, NY — The impact of a tragic moment on the Cross County Parkway more than two years ago is still being felt by the victims, their families and the driver responsible.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced Wednesday that a Mount Vernon man was sentenced to an indeterminate term of between 2½ and 7½ years in prison for causing the high-speed crash that left two passengers dead and a third seriously injured.

“The devastating consequences of the defendant's selfish and reckless conduct have killed two young people and permanently altered the life of another,” Rocah said. “We hope that today's verdict provides some measure of comfort to the victims and their families.”

Anthony Rose, 21, pleaded guilty on April 4 to two counts of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault.

On December 18, 2021, at approximately 5:23 a.m., Rose, who did not have a driver's license, was driving over 100 miles per hour on the Cross County Parkway in Mount Vernon with his headlights off and three passengers in his car before nearly colliding with a car, striking a second vehicle, and eventually crashing head-on into a tree.

Noelina Pantaleon, 20, of Mount Vernon, died at the scene, and Harry Jonathan Hurst, 19, of Mount Vernon, was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where he suffered a traumatic brain injury until his death on March 7. A third passenger, 22-year-old Nyaquae Henderson, also of Mount Vernon, was hospitalized and treated for a traumatic brain injury. She will undergo rehabilitation treatment for the rest of her life.

The Westchester County Department of Public Safety arrested Rose on January 26, 2023. The Westchester County District Attorney's Office assisted in the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Jonathan Strongin, chief of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau, with assistance from the District Attorney's Office Criminal Investigation Division and the Victims Justice Center.