Oct 13, 2009 6:06 am US/Eastern
'She Told Me She Was In Good Hands'
Father Of Girl Killed In Alleged DWI Crash Tells CBS 2 That The Suspect Assured Him His Daughter Was Safe
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Leandra Rosado, 11, was killed after her friend's mother, 31-year-old Carmen Huertas, flipped the car they were in while apparently drunk.
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Kayla Fernandez was critically injured after the car she was driving in flipped over at the hands of Carmen Huertas, her friend's mother, who was allegedly driving drunk.
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Carmen Huertas' car flipped over after she lost control on Manhattan's West Side Highway. An 11-year-old girl was killed in the crash.
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When one parent makes a promise to another that they will protect their child, you expect them to do just that, but in the case of 31-year-old Carmen Huertas, it was an empty promise. Now, a single father sits alone, his 11-year-old daughter gone.
Pieces of her shattered car still litter the crash site along the West Side Highway. They were parts of a five-passenger Mercury Sable, allegedly driven by Huertas, who police say was drunk, and packed with eight people, including 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who is never coming home.
"My daughter hugged me and said 'Dad I love you,' and that those were the last words she spoke to me when I went home," said Lenny Rosado, Leandra's father. "I slept in her room last night, she wasn't there and I felt it. I know it's going to be a tough road ahead."
Rosado's room is filled with pictures and books, Beanie Babies, shoes, clothing, and all the physical possessions of the young life she lost. She was thrown from the car she was in alongside the West Side Highway and died an hour after the crash.
The last time her father saw her alive was at the curb outside an apartment house on West 20th Street early Saturday evening. It was the drop-off point before Huertas, the mother of Leandra's friend Brittany, would later take the girls up to the Bronx for a holiday weekend sleepover.
"She looked OK. I didn't see no signs of intoxication. We shook hands and she told me 'Lenny, your daughter's wonderful, you know she's a doll and she's in good hands with me don't worry,' and I said 'OK, no problem,'" said Rosado. "She told me that she was in good hands."
But Huertas' demeanor likely changed in the hours of partying that followed. Those who knew the little girl want to know where the other adults were when she grabbed the car keys and left with the kids.
"You don't invite children to a party that has alcohol. Anything can happen and this is right now, it's a shame that this has to be an example," said J.M. Estrella, a family friend.
It's a crushing cost to bear for a family that did keep close tabs, which did check to see who was driving. The girl's grandmother, Olga Rosado, stood in the child's bedroom and stared at the empty room on Monday, remembering that Leandra was hoping to re-paint it soon.
"We'll paint it the way she wanted even though she isn't here," she told CBS 2.
Friends of the driver, meanwhile, are defending her as a good person. The accident and the drunken driving allegation is something they say they cannot explain.
"Not her. She's the last person on Earth that anybody would have thought anything like this," said one of Huertas' neighbors.
As for Mr. Rosado, he isn't sure if he'll be able to forgive her.
"It's going to take some time for he to grieve, and maybe down the road I will, I will forgive," he said.
Leandra's wake is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. Her father says he'll open it up to the whole city. He wants us everyone to know what happened, and everyone to remember.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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