Georgia woman sentenced in fatal impaired driving crash that killed Freeport woman
Rachel Lodice pleaded guilty after authorities said she was high, speeding, and ran multiple red lights before crashing into Cynthia Mitchell's vehicle in April of 2024 on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa.
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Emotions ran high at the Nassau County Courthouse on Monday, as the family of Cynthia Mitchell pleaded with a judge to impose the maximum sentence on the driver who caused the crash that killed the 64-year-old Freeport woman.
Instead, 22-year-old Rachel Lodice, of Georgia, was sentenced to 3 ⅓ to 10 years in prison — a decision that left the victim’s family and prosecutors disappointed.
Lodice pleaded guilty after authorities said she was high, speeding, and ran multiple red lights before crashing into Mitchell's vehicle in April of 2024 on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa. She then attempted to flee the scene in a Town of Oyster Bay public safety vehicle, prosecutors said.
The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office had pushed for a sentence of seven to 15 years.
"This person took another person’s life," said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. "We treat it differently if someone takes a gun and shoots someone with a bullet. Why is using a car and killing someone treated so differently?"
Family members gave emotional victim impact statements, urging the judge to impose the maximum sentence allowed. Ted Mitchell, Cynthia’s husband, vowed to stay active in the justice process going forward.
"We’re not satisfied with the time and the length," he said. "But we intend to be at every parole board meeting to emphasize to the people in charge that we want to keep her in jail as long as possible."
Lodice declined to speak in court before sentencing. She will serve her term in a state prison upstate.
