ALBANY — Sheila Harris broke down in tears Wednesday while recounting the death of her cousin in a hit-and-run blamed on a driver who got to celebrate the Christmas holiday at home — thanks to the state’s controversial bail-reform law.
Harris, 51, said she rushed to the scene in suburban Stony Point where cousin Maria Osai, a 35-year-old mother of three, was fatally mowed down on Christmas Eve.
“I pulled up and the officer told me that all he could say was that she was breathing. It was very confusing and sad,” she said while clutching the hand of her son CJ, 4.
But the tragedy turned to outrage, Harris said, when driver Jorge Flores-Villalba was busted and hauled into court the following morning.
“He went before the judge, I believe between 9 and 9:30 Christmas Day, was released without bail and was home by 10 o’clock to enjoy Christmas with his kids, open gifts, have breakfast,” she said.
“He was arrested, arraigned and released, all before her three kids knew that she had died on the street like a dog.”
During a news conference sponsored by Assembly Republicans, Harris ripped into Gov. Cuomo for signing the bail-reform measure.
“This law, I’m not saying we don’t need bail reform, but this law is ridiculous,” she said.
“You need to change it. It’s not fair that a man can kill a woman and leave her to die and then go home and celebrate Christmas like nothing happened. That’s not fair.”
Flores-Villalba, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was charged with second-degree manslaughter, which is among the crimes for which judges can no longer order defendants held on bail.
He was subsequently arrested by federal immigration agents and is being held pending deportation proceedings, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Another speaker at Wednesday’s news conference, Jennifer Payne, blamed the bail-reform law for the Jan. 9 release of Darien Shellman, who had previously been held on bail in the fatal shooting of Payne’s daughter, Sarah Tombs, in Syracuse on April 14.
Shellman, who was Tombs’ boyfriend, was also charged with second second-degree manslaughter.
Payne accused Cuomo of “taking the discretion from the judges, allowing killers to walk free with no regard to the safety of the public.”
“This is unacceptable as my daughter’s [alleged] killer is walking the streets as my family and I continue to pick up the pieces from the trauma,” she said.
“I am always searching faces out in public to make sure my granddaughter never has to see his face again,” she added.