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Albany County resident Nsikak Okure, age 34, of Altamont, was sentenced to eight to 24 years behind bars in Albany County Court on Wednesday, April 26.
It followed his February 2023 guilty plea to aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of Tanisha Brathwaite in Albany in September 2022.
According to prosecutors, Brathwaite was walking home from her job as a security guard at the state Capitol on Sept. 14, 2022, when Okure "recklessly operated a motor vehicle while under the influence of a significant amount of alcohol" and struck her on Clinton Avenue near North Swan Street.
Brathwaite, who was still wearing her security guard uniform, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Okure initially pleaded not guilty to all counts against him, but ultimately copped to the vehicular homicide charge, as well as leaving the scene of an incident without reporting.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Brathwaite’s mother, Terry Parker, addressed the man who took her daughter’s life.
“I won’t ever forgive you. You know what you have done,” Parker told Okure. “If you would not have gotten caught, we would not be here today. You don’t care that you hit her, you only care that you got caught.”
Vehicular Crimes Bureau Chief Mary Tanner-Richter told the court that Okure’s claims of remorse for Brathwaite’s death were contradicted by his actions immediately following the crash.
“Not only did he fail to seek help after he knew he hit someone with his car, he expressed more concern for the damage to his vehicle than he did for the pedestrian he hit,” she said.
In addition to her work as a security guard, Brathwaite was an aspiring author, having published her first novel, “Caught in the Storm,” under the pen name Tani Bee in 2018.
In her Amazon profile, the University at Albany graduate described herself as an up-and-coming author from Brooklyn who was working on additional novels.
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