The recidivist reckless driver who hit and killed a 3-month-old baby at a Brooklyn intersection two years ago is being offered a plea deal of nine years behind bars by a Brooklyn judge on Wednesday, despite the District Attorney's offer of 15.
Tyrik Mott had close to 100 red light and speed camera tickets on his record before cops say he struck and killed baby Apolline Mong-Guillemin with his car in Fort Greene on Sept. 11, 2021. He has until March 22 to either take the offer from Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun, or go to trial where he faces up to 25 years.
Mott was driving the wrong way on Gates Avenue in his Pennsylvania-plated Honda Civic when he plowed into another car, sending both vehicles onto the sidewalk and in the path of three pedestrians: Apolline and her parents Julien Mong, 36, and Marion Guillemin, 33, who was gravely injured.
The killer initially fled on foot, police said, but was later arrested and charged him with manslaughter and assault. He has pleaded not guilty.
Mott drove dangerously despite his completion months earlier of a 90-minute safety course for convicted vehicle offenders run by the Brooklyn Justice Initiative and Center for Court Innovation. The course features emotional testimonies from families who have lost loved ones to traffic violence.
The session requires participants to identify their own poor driving behavior, and how they plan to reform it — but had seemingly no impact on Mott, who received 26 school-zone speed camera and red-light tickets between his May 4 course completion date and the day he allegedly killed baby Apolline four months later. One of those tickets occurred just one day before his fatal curb-jump.
Guillemin and Mong, the grieving parents, filed a separate civil suit against both Mott and the city for “serious, severe and permanent personal and emotional injuries by reason of the negligence, recklessness and carelessness and wanton and willful acts and/or omissions.”
The city has denied any wrongdoing, and instead blamed the dead child's parents in court papers, saying that the couple should have known the dangers of walking on the sidewalk in New York City.
“Plaintiff[s] culpable conduct caused or contributed to the alleged injuries and the alleged wrongful death,” the city’s Assistant Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Gross wrote in court papers filed last summer. “Plaintiff[s] negligence caused or contributed to the alleged injuries and the alleged wrongful death.”
Mott is due back in court on March 22.
