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By Carol Tannenhauser
On Monday, over “objections from prosecutors” and “infuriating her loved ones,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro sentenced Brian Boyd, the 27-year-old Upper West Side man who killed Gone Girl actress Lisa Banes in a hit-and-run collision in June 2021, to 1 to 3 years in prison, according to the Daily News.
Banes, who lived in Los Angeles, had been coming from Juilliard, her alma mater, on her way to meet friends for dinner, when Boyd blew through a red light on Amsterdam Avenue and W. 64th Street and hit Banes, 65, who was in the crosswalk. According to the Daily News, “Surveillance video shows him fall off his unregistered electric scooter [he was also unlicensed], dust himself off, take a few steps to look at the actress on the ground covered in blood, and take off. He left to get his bike fixed in Harlem, where he was captured on video popping open a beer with his teeth.”
According to the Rag, “Boyd, 26, was arrested in August in the lobby of his apartment building, just steps from where the crash occurred, by patrol officers who recognized him from a wanted poster. He was initially charged with leaving the scene of an accident and failure to yield to a pedestrian, but a Manhattan Supreme Court judge upped the charges, indicting Boyd for reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, failure to exercise due care and failure to yield. Those charges carry a minimum penalty of one to three years, and a maximum of 15 years.”
Boyd pleaded guilty to lesser charges — manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident — in September, 2022.
On Monday, Boyd “attempted to claim in court — contrary to his September guilty pleas for manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident — that he had not acted recklessly,” The New York Times reported. “Judge Carro reminded Mr. Boyd that after finding and leaving Ms. Banes lying face down and bleeding on the pavement, he immediately drove four miles north to a Harlem shop that repaired his electric scooter while he drank a Heineken beer.
“’You know what? I’ll give you your plea back,’ Judge Carro said. ‘You want to go to trial?’
“Mr. Boyd said that he did not.”
Banes died in Mt. Sinai Morningside hospital of severe head trauma 10 days after she was struck. “In her victim-impact statement, [her] wife, Kathryn Kranhold, told the judge that Boyd’s actions showed that he cared more about his broken bike than her dying spouse,” the Daily News reported.
Banes’ death shocked the neighborhood, as did the more recent moped incident, also occuring near Lincoln Center, which gravely injured Pamela Greitzer-Manasse.
Thanks for reporting. The NYT article is also worth a read. It includes a few more details that make clear this man is a P.OS.
I am angry and I don’t know what to do with it. There are tactics other places have used to crack down on this behavior (ramming, spraying) but they seem still potentially dangerous to the general population, if less so than a car chase.
More people are going to have their lives disrupted and ended by these anti social people. What’s frightening is any one of us living here can see this behavior any time we like: just take a walk and cross a few streets.
Please write to your Councilperson, the Mayor, and your Congressman. There have been a number of accidents in this particular area. I’m on the UWS and have almost been hit 5 or 6 times. I never see the NYPD anywhere around when these riders are riding on the sidewalks-going through lights or going the wrong way down a street. I was almost hit recently while crossing with the light by a guy on an e-bike riding the wrong way down the middle of the street on Broadway!! I couldn’t believe it! This needs to stop! I have written to the Mayor and my Councilperson.
Thanks Susan, could you imagine if we all did what Susan just did…..
It’s great to come here and vent, but we have the politicians that we have, regardless of whether we voted for them or not.
We pay taxes, and part of those taxes means that we should be provided with a safe environment in walking on the sidewalk and crossing the street.
I was hit by a delivery guy on a bike who went the wrong way to a red light. This was a few years ago before the start of motor bikes.
He knocked me out, and when I came to…his bike was on me and he was down the street lying among pizza boxes.
If this did happen to a woman or man in their 70s, they would have broken their hip and probably not recovered.
Again, I asked that all of you be good ambassadors for our neighborhood and call/write to your city Council person,
311 will take a note to the mayor under 50 words and you can call the governors office which I have a numerous times and leave a detailed message
Here’s something I think could help: the city immediately confiscates any motor vehicle observed without a license plate.
During the pandemic, someone (I strongly suspect a security guard) was parking his motorcycle, with no plates, in the bike lane outside the Duane Read at W79th . Breaking the law twice over.
I submitted it to 311 five times. Yes that’s right: five SRs on five separate days and instances of infraction.
Eventually the police must have had a chat with the guard, because the motorcycle was no longer parked there. Where was it to be found? Parked illegally again, without a license plate, behind the Tacombi restaurant’s street shack.
“No words.”
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be published.
Boyd deserved the max of 15 years. I live a few blocks from where this happened and always look both ways on Amsterdam before crossing. There are careless idiots on mopeds who constantly run through red lights and drive the wrong way on Amsterdam.
According to nycourts.gov, Justice Carro’s term on the Court of Appeals ends this month. Gov. Hochul should NOT re-appoint him to another term and he should be removed as an Acting Justice to the Manhattan Supreme Court.
Asst. District Atty. LaFarge strongly urged Judge Gregory Carro to increase Brian Boyd’s sentence to 3 to 9 years pointing out that Boyd’s plea deal was based on false statements he had made to a court officer. Boyd had told a court officer that Ms. Banes was (1) distracted by her phone and headphones while crossing the street and (2) he did stop to help her. However, a video recording showed that both of his claims were outright lies.
Incredibly, Judge Carro himself even noted that Boyd had sped through a red light hitting Barnes before heading to a e-bike repair shop to drink a beer.
Incredible. Plea deal based on false statements.
From the coverage, it appears that the false statements were made AFTER the deal was entered into. “Brian Boyd, 27, attempted to claim in court — contrary to his September guilty pleas for manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident — that he had not acted recklessly in June 2021 when he ran a red light and struck Ms. Banes on a West 64th Street crosswalk.”
When you plead guilty to a crime, the judge ordinarily expects you to allocute to the elements of the crime. This guy apparently didn’t even have the courage to stick to the truth when he’d already told it.
Had he lied when entering the plea agreement, the DA could’ve voided it. All these agreements are conditioned on the defendant’s statements being truthful.
Sickening. Utterly sickening. This is NOT justice, and this so-called judge absolutely had the discretion to impose more than the minimum sentence.
“No justice, no peace!” cuts both ways. May it cut deeply.
“this so-called judge absolutely had the discretion to impose more than the minimum sentence”
I think we treat vehicular homicides too lightly in this country, but the defendant entered a plea bargain.
No we did not. The judge decided on his own to impose this outrageously short sentence. Onje to three years means he could be out in as little as 8 months. He is a Pataki appointee with a long history of going light on the sentencing of felons.
I do not understand your sentence. A 30 second search shows this: Gregory Carro is an Acting Justice of the New York County Supreme Court, Criminal Term in the First Judicial District of New York. He was appointed to the Supreme Court bench in 2002 by the Hon. Jonathan Lippman, former Chief Administrative Judge of the State of New York.
He was appointed (not elected) in 2002. Bloomberg was in office then. The law literally allows for a maximum of 15 years. He chose to give the minimum. This is on him, not anyone else.
This is actually one of the *harsher* sentences I’ve seen in this kind of incident in some time.
Not nearly enough. He apparently has no remorse. A beautiful life was snuffed out.
Disgusting. There should be calls for the judge’s removal. The moped driver is obviously a person with absolutely no conscience. A 15-year term would have at least taught home that murderous actions have unpleasant consequences.
What is wrong with our judicial system? This creep murders Ms. Banes, and gets 1-3 years? Should be a much more severe sentence. Ten years at least. He showed absolutely NO remorse and left her lying on the road and drove away to get his machine fixed. He is inhuman – — no redeeming features here….
OK so, prosecutors cut this plea deal; they sought a longer sentence/enhancement of three to nine years because Boyd allegedly lied (after the plea) by claiming that “Banes was distracted by her phone and headphones as she crossed the street and that he stopped to help her,” according to CBS.
The Times says that the judge expressed a desire to impose a longer sentence, but ultimately “said he would honor the terms of Mr. Boyd’s plea agreement.”
So, it sounds like the plea deal, and the broader issue of these cases being outrageously hard to prove under NY law, are the main reasons for the short sentence. If anyone knows more about the basis for the requested enhancement, and the judge’s ability to grant it, I’d like to hear more.
Absolutely unbelievable! 1 to 3 years for what he did (and didn’t do). Our justice system is sick. This man should be in jail for the full 15 years (at least!).
1-3 years means 6-9 months with good behavior
Boyd deserves to do more time, I feel this light sentence sets a bad example. On a daily basis careless moped drivers and bicyclists are harming pedestrians. I don’t see any police enforcing laws on them. I see mopeds riding on streets while elderly are walking, nothing is done.
Shameful miscarriage of justice; just appalling.
What does our law and order mayor have to say?
No one should be under any illusion that the convicted perp will do anything close to one to three years. For starters, 1/3 of the sentence is immediately cut off as an incentive for good behavior. If he has been locked up since the arrest he can claim credit for time served. He could very likely be back out in a few weeks, if not sooner.
“ He was initially charged with leaving the scene of an accident and failure to yield to a pedestrian, but a Manhattan Supreme Court judge upped the charges, indicting Boyd for reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, failure to exercise due care and failure to yield. ”
Seriously?
The Judge and not DA had to up the charges? The DAs were fine with just failure to yield?! After all this heartless disgusting behaviour following the crash?
I have narrowly escaped a fate similar to Lisa Banes’ countless times here on the upper West Side and in my Riverside Park. Bike and electric scooter riders whiz along park lanes and crosswalks silently giving no warning. We pedestrians are in grave danger. Help!!
A three year sentence is ludicrous. Come on, Boyd killed an innocent woman and left the scene of the accident. What is wrong with this judge. Has he no sense of decency and fairness.
Why was a murderer allowed to plead out to just a 1 year bit!!!
I’m gobsmacked; that’s NOTHING but a slap to the face of everybody in NYC… is this ALVIN BRAGG’S doing??!
Is this part of his let’s-undermine-and-even-destroy-law-order-and-civilization-in-NYC campaign?
Feels like it.
No. It’s not. The ADA opposed the lenient sentence as noted IN THE FIRST LINE OF THE ARTICLE. You people and this nonsense about Bragg are ridiculous. Did you even read the piece???
Then who negotiated the plea deal that the judge said he would honor? Somewhat confusing.
While I agree with the vast majority of the commenters who would like to see a stiffer sentence, in reality, to see a motorist serve any time at all for killing a pedestrian is a great and unusual thing. This is probably why the DA suggested a plea, no guarantee of success at a jury trial.
“Surveillance video shows him fall off his unregistered electric scooter [he was also unlicensed], dust himself off, take a few steps to look at the actress on the ground covered in blood, and take off.”
The fact that the e-scooter was unregistered is irrelevant, assuming it’s speed limited. Nor does one need a drivers license to use speed limited e-scooters and throttle e-bikes in NYC/State.
Mr. Boyd may be directly responsible for Ms Banes’ death, but so is NY State since it legalized these machines, and so is the City because it takes next to no efforcement action when the drivers break traffic laws, which they do nearly 100 percent of the time these machines are in use.