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Somers resident Jaime Paucar, age 52, has been sentenced to a term of between eight and one-third to 25 years, followed by five years of post-release supervision after being found guilty on multiple charges.
- Specifically, Paucar was found guilty following a four-week trial of:
- Two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide;
- Two counts of manslaughter;
- Second-degree assault.
Each of those charges are felonies.
Paucar was also found guilty of:
- Third-degree assault;
- Aggravated driving while intoxicated;
- Driving while intoxicated;
- Reckless driving;
- Leaving the scene of an incident without reporting property damage;
- Leaving the scene of an incident without reporting personal injuries.
Those charges are misdemeanors. Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah noted that Paucar was acquitted of two counts of second-degree murder by the jury.
At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2020, Paucar was driving westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-287 in Harrison when he crashed head-on into the car driven by 57-year-old Ardsley resident Jordan Wachtell, whose 17-year-old son and two teenage friends were passengers.
Rocah said that Wachtell was pronounced at the scene. One of the passengers, Eric Goldberg, age 17, also of Ardsley, was transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he died later that night.
Wachtell’s son and the other surviving passenger were also transported to Westchester Medical Center and treated for their injuries sustained in the crash.
Prosecutors noted that said that before the fatal collision, Paucar had been driving in the correct direction on I-287 when he crashed into a separate vehicle.
After leaving the scene of that crash and exiting I-287, Paucar re-entered I-287 heading westbound in the eastbound lanes.
“Prior to the fatal collision, Paucar was driving in the correct direction on I-287 when he crashed into a vehicle, fled the scene, exited the highway, and retreated to a parking lot in Port Chester," Rocah said. “Thereafter, while attempting to drive in the direction of his home, Paucar missed the entrance for I-287 eastbound/westbound and drove on several side streets before using an exit ramp to enter I-287 eastbound, despite signage and at least three motorists warning him he was driving the wrong way.
“(Paucar) then drove westbound in the eastbound lanes for more than two miles, sideswiping three additional vehicles before the fatal crash.”
A Westchester County toxicologist determined Paucar had a blood alcohol content of .24 at the time of the collision, triple the legal limit.
“The impact of Jordan’s untimely death has left me lost, devastated, and fearful for our future,” the wife of Wachtell said during sentencing. "I am now facing life alone without my co-parent, my life partner, my friend, my confidant, my biggest fan, and the protector and sole wage earner of my family.
“On top of my own grief, it is heartbreaking to watch my children fear risk, fear loss, lose emotional energy, in short, be traumatized.”
In a victim impact statement made to the court at Paucar’s sentencing, one of his surviving passengers said that he "still has nightmares” about the fateful fatal crash and refused to offer Paucar any sympathy for his actions.
“To me, you are the boogeyman... We were just four people going to a basketball game. We could have never known your name or who you were but you were selfish... You killed one of my best friends, Eric Goldberg," the victim stated.
“You killed Jordan Wachtell... You changed the lives of the Goldbergs, Wachtells, and Rosens forever. You were the one who made my friends cry… You’re the one who made families all over Ardsley mourn. It’s not fair, and for that, I cannot give you my forgiveness.”
Paucar was arrested in March 2020 by New York State Police troopers following an investigation into the fatal wrong-way crash.
The mother of Eric Goldberg also spoke at the sentencing, noting that her teenage son still “had his whole life ahead of him.”
“He had so many hopes and dreams for the future that I know he would have accomplished,” she said. “All of this was taken away from him and us on Jan. 30, 2020.
“Eric would be a sophomore in college now, and while most parents visit their children in college, I go to visit my son at the cemetery,” she continued. “There’s no sentence that could ever be given that would justify taking Eric’s life and Eric away from us.”
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