A 24-year-old Lindenhurst man pleaded guilty this week to manslaughter and related charges in the September 2024 crash that killed a 49-year-old West Babylon father on the Southern State Parkway, after prosecutors say he was recording himself on his cellphone while driving 121 miles per hour. Felix Pantaleon entered the plea Friday before Acting Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski, admitting to second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, three counts of third-degree assault, and reckless driving.
According to Long Island Life & Politics, Pantaleon was driving a 2014 Honda Civic westbound near Exit 39S in North Babylon on September 22, 2024, cutting off other vehicles and weaving between lanes before slamming into the rear of a 2009 Honda CR-V driven by Reynaldo Collado. The impact sent both cars veering off the roadway — Pantaleon's Civic careened into the woods and then slammed into the median barrier, while Collado's CR-V crashed into the woods along the right-hand shoulder. Collado died at the scene. One passenger in his CR-V suffered a fractured vertebra and pelvis and was later treated at a rehabilitation facility, while three other occupants sustained injuries requiring hospital treatment.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney did not mince words about the case. “This defendant's egregious actions killed another innocent driver,” Tierney said, according to the outlet's reporting. He added a broader warning aimed at reckless drivers across the county: “Vehicles become lethal weapons in the hands of those who treat them like toys.”
From Indictment to Negotiated Plea
Pantaleon — also identified in court filings as Felix Jose Pantaleon Tavarez — was originally arraigned in January 2025 before Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins on an indictment that included second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, third-degree assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and operating a portable electronic device, according to Daily Voice. That indictment came nearly four months after the crash, as investigators worked to build the case. Represented by defense attorney Vincent Bianco, Pantaleon ultimately agreed to a negotiated plea that carries an anticipated sentence of four to 12 years in prison, per reporting from Newsday. He is due back in court on October 23 for sentencing.
The second-degree manslaughter charge Pantaleon admitted to is a Class C felony under New York Penal Law, defined as recklessly causing another person's death by consciously disregarding a substantial risk. The statute carries a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in state prison, according to the New York State Senate, meaning Pantaleon's expected sentence falls within — but well short of — the legal ceiling for the charge.
Forensic Evidence Confirmed the Speed
After the crash, New York State Police deployed their Collision Reconstruction Unit and Bureau of Criminal Investigation to examine the roadway and pull data from the vehicles' black boxes, according to Long Island Life & Politics. That Event Data Recorder evidence later confirmed Pantaleon had reached roughly 121 mph in the moments before impact — a speed more than triple the posted limit on a parkway built for a very different era of driving.
A Highway Long Known as “Blood Alley”
The Southern State Parkway, originally designed in the 1920s for vehicles traveling around 35 mph, now handles up to 200,000 vehicles a day and has earned a grim nickname among local drivers and safety advocates. Per the Babylon Beacon, the corridor is known locally as “Blood Alley,” with New York State Police recording more than 3,000 crashes on it every year.
The numbers back up the reputation. State Department of Transportation data analyzed in 2025 found more than 42,700 collisions on the parkway between 2012 and 2023, resulting in 137 deaths and 846 serious injuries, according to Newsday reporting shared by the outlet. A separate 2026 traffic analysis of 18 major Long Island roadways found the 25.5-mile parkway recorded 978 crashes in just a 90-day span — about 35% of all surveyed collisions across Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The toll has prompted political pressure for change. In March 2026, Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages called for state transportation officials to install solid median barriers, widen travel lanes, and increase state police patrols along the corridor, according to News 12 Long Island.
Not an Isolated Case
Pantaleon's case echoes another recent Southern State Parkway prosecution covered by Hoodline: 20-year-old Jaden D'Souza pleaded guilty in March 2026 to aggravated vehicular homicide and manslaughter after driving 123 mph near Exit 30 in January 2025, a crash that killed two passengers. Suffolk County prosecutors have increasingly treated extreme highway speeding paired with cellphone use as a violent felony rather than a routine traffic infraction, and the parkway's mounting fatality count has kept both drivers and lawmakers focused on the corridor.
Collado, remembered by family as a humble man with a “giant heart,” left behind loved ones who organized a community GoFundMe campaign to cover funeral costs and return his remains to the Dominican Republic, where he was laid to rest following a service on September 30, 2024, according to Daily Voice's earlier reporting. It remains unclear whether the surviving CR-V passengers or Collado's estate have pursued civil litigation, and what victim impact statements will be presented when Pantaleon returns to court next month.
