Roosevelt man sentenced for manslaughter and DWI

Car crash killed Lakeview resident, Diamond Hawkins

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A Roosevelt man was sentenced four to 12 years in prison on May 5 for a fatal car crash that killed his girlfriend, Lakeview resident Diamond Hawkins, in 2015.

Horace Cummings, 34, was driving Hawkins’s 2015 Nissan Altima in Hempstead while impaired by drugs and alcohol on Nov. 21, 2015, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said. Hawkins was a passenger in the vehicle and had just received the car that day as a gift from her grandmother for her 25th birthday.

At approximately 2:40 a.m., Cummings crossed over the center line on Front Street, and the car collided head on with another vehicle driving eastbound. Hawkins was killed in the collision. Cummings, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, told police that Hawkins had actually been the driver. The driver of the other car was uninjured.

“Diamond Hawkins turned 25 years old and lost her life on her birthday because her boyfriend, Horace Cummings, drove while he was impaired by alcohol and drugs and crashed the new car that she had just received from her family as a gift,” DA Singas said. “This tragic case should remind everyone that you must be careful about who you are trusting with your life when you enter a car as a passenger.”

Cummings was later indicted and surrendered to the Nassau County Police Department on Aug. 8.

Cummings pleaded guilty to manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs on Feb. 22.