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After deliberating for nearly three hours, Lumumba Woods, age 50, of Manhattan, was found guilty of second-degree assault and two counts of driving while intoxicated in Nassau County Court on Friday, Dec. 16.
Prosecutors said it was around 9 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2020, when Woods lost control of his 2003 Acura MDX while speeding westbound on Sunrise Highway near the Wantagh State Parkway.
After speeding past one vehicle, he struck the center median, causing his vehicle to roll multiple times before coming to rest upright on the north shoulder of Sunrise Highway, according to investigators.
One witness testified that Woods’ vehicle flipped over more than ten times.
The impact ejected a 58-year-old woman who had been sitting in Woods’ passenger seat, launching her approximately 20 feet from the vehicle, prosecutors said.
She suffered multiple broken bones and is now paralyzed from the chest down.
State Police troopers arrested Woods at the scene.
“The victim suffered catastrophic injuries and is still unable to talk or walk, two years after the crash, due to this defendant’s reckless actions,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement.
“Mr. Woods, who was one-and-a-half times the legal limit for alcohol, endangered every person on the road that evening. We wish the victim the very best as she continues to heal from this terrible crash.”
He now faces up to seven years in prison when he’s sentenced in January 2023.
According to prosecutors, Woods was convicted of second-degree murder in Suffolk County in 1992 and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He was released in 2014.
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