Brooklyn Man Convicted of Manslaughter in Drug-Impaired Traffic Crash that Claimed Uncle’s Life

Townsley faces 15 years in prison following August 2007 drugged driving crash on the Southern State Parkway in Malverne

MINEOLA – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Salih Townsley, 30, of Brooklyn, has been convicted of manslaughter in connection with an August 2007 drugged-driving crash that killed his 43-year-old uncle and seriously injured his girlfriend’s four-year-old child. 

Townsley was convicted of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Driving While Impaired by Drugs, Reckless Assault, Vehicular Assault, Reckless Endangerment, and other traffic violations.  Nassau County Acting Supreme Court Judge John Kase presided over the trial and is scheduled to sentence Townsley June 12.  He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

On August 19, 2007, Townsley was driving his 2000 Jaguar S-Type eastbound on the Southern State Parkway near Malverne at a high rate of speed when it skidded off the wet road and slammed into a tree. Backseat passenger Steven Stanley, 43, of Brooklyn was killed, and an unrestrained four-year old girl was ejected from the vehicle, suffering numerous fractures and bleeding to her brain. Two other passengers, a 26-year-old man and a three-year-old boy, escaped injury. The two young children are Townsley’s girlfriend’s. Detectives later determined that Townsley was high on marijuana during the crash.

“Mr. Townsley got high, got behind the wheel, killed his uncle and seriously injured a defenseless four-year-old girl,” Rice said. “Drugged and drunk driving claim thousands of lives every year and on Long Island, it’s an epidemic.  This is a terrible tragedy that could have easily been prevented.”

Handling the cases for the District Attorney’s Office is Assistant District Attorney Matt Lampert of the DA’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau. Townsley is represented by Dennis Lemke, Esq.