Yonkers woman spared prison time for drunken crash that killed partner

A Yonkers woman who killed her partner after an argument when she drove drunk and struck the wall of a school with him on the hood of her car pleaded guilty Thursday.

Mercedes Vargas, 45, of Stanley Avenue, was promised a sentence of five years probation including six months in the county jail after pleading guilty to second-degree vehicular manslaughter in the Sept. 4, 2021, death of Martires Susana-Pena.

The couple had been drinking and arguing at their home early that morning when Vargas started to drive away in a 2012 Subaru Forester. Susana-Pena ended up on the hood and remained there as Vargas drove across Ludlow Street onto Stanley Place. She crashed into a gate to the Eugenio Maria De Hostos MicroSociety School, struck a concrete barrier and then hit the wall of the school building, police said at the time.

Susana-Pena, 42, was knocked to the ground and pronounced dead at the scene. Vargas remained there and her blood alcohol level was later determined to be 0.18 percent. She also pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated driving while intoxicated.

The probationary sentence offered by prosecutors was based on Vargas being the victim of domestic violence by Susana-Pena and her efforts since then to turn her life around and overcome an alcohol problem, Assistant District Attorney John O'Rourke told state Supreme Court Justice James McCarty.

The judge accepted the guilty plea and scheduled sentencing for Aug. 12.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yonkers woman spared prison time for drunken crash that killed partner