A 37-year-old woman has been arrested for a bizarre hit-and-run crash involving a U-Haul truck that killed a beloved Queens resident, police said Friday.
Jamie Ferreira is facing manslaughter and a host of other charges, including burglary, reckless driving, driving on the sidewalk, and leaving the scene of an accident for the fatal Aug. 20 crash at the intersection of Kissena Blvd. and Horace Harding Expressway that killed 56-year-old David Opiela, police said.
A woman riding in the U-Haul with her, Jennifer Sablan, 43, was also arrested and hit with a raft of charges after counterfeit cash as well as stolen credit cards and a checkbook taken from an Elmhurst home were found in the back of the truck, prosecutors said.
“The duo were involved in other crimes, including identity theft,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Friday. “Thanks to the extraordinary collaboration between my office, the NYPD, the Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Secret Service, we were able to track down these defendants and charge them six months after the crash.”
Ferreira was behind the wheel when she blew a stoplight, mounted the curb by a gas station and slammed into Opiela and a light pole.
A U-Haul truck (circled) is pictured moments before it blows through a red light, killing David Opiela on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Queens. (Obtained by Daily News)
Opiela was hit so hard he was knocked out of his work boots, longtime friend Michael Abbate said.
“We can’t wait ’till we have our day in court so we can look into the eyes of these cowards,” Abbate said Friday.
Ferreira drove away from the crash scene, only to collide with a Honda Accord driven by a 42-year-old man, police said.
Ferreira, who was picked up in Pennsylvania earlier this week, and Sablan fled the scene on foot, officials said.
Surveillance video recovered by the Daily News at the time shows the U-Haul box truck entering the frame at a high speed, its headlights momentarily illuminating Opiela as the truck barrels toward the intersection, appearing to jump the small curb. When the spot where Opiela stood becomes visible again, his body is nowhere to be seen in the footage.
Opiela died at the scene. The driver of the Honda was taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“If he would have died at home in his sleep, that’s one thing — but to go to the market and not come home?” Abbate told the Daily News in August after his friend’s death. “You expect people to die at home in their bed at night, not this horrific way he got taken.”
Opiela, a Flushing native, died just two blocks from his home.
Billy Masi, 75, who said he’d known Opiela for 20 years, called him “King David.”
“I guess I just felt there was some inherent nobility in him,” Masi said in August when asked about the nickname. “He was a gentle giant. A protector.”
Hit-and-run victim David Opiela in an undated photo. (Obtained by Daily News)
For the past year, Masi said, Opiela had been living with him on 59th Ave.
“I told him ‘good night’ at about 9:45 p.m.,” Masi said, recalling the night his friend died. “The detectives came by about 2:30 a.m.”
“As far as I know he was going to the store,” Abbate said of the gas station at the corner of Kissena and Horace Harding.
“I don’t want him to just be a statistic.” Abbate told The News. “He’s a good guy. He’d give you the shirt off his back. He’s a quiet, humble guy.
“It’s just devastating, you know?” he continued. “I’m heartbroken.”
DNA from a bloody steering wheel airbag helped police identify Ferreira as the driver, officials said. When cops opened the back of the U-Haul, they found a laptop computer, three cellphones, a forged U.S. Postal Service key, multiple stolen credit cards and a benefits card in Ferreira’s name.
Police learned that the cards were stolen from an apartment on Van Kleeck St. in Elmhurst on June 28, about two months before the crash. On the same day, Ferreira and Sablan used the forged key to open up the locked mailboxes in the building and steal packages.
Police arrested Ferreira on Tuesday after a grand jury indicted her.
She was ordered held without bail after her arraignment. She’s expected to answer the charges in court next month.