Rahmel Watkins convicted of negligent homicide, assault, reckless driving and endangerment in fatal Lawrence car crash

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Brooklyn resident Rahmel Watkins was found guilty on Sept. 24 on four counts of second-degree assault, two counts of negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving for the April 2018 car crash that killed Elisheva Kaplan and Yisroel Levin on the Nassau Expressway in Lawrence.

Watkins, 36 was acquitted on two counts of second-degree manslaughter. He could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison. Watkins is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 29. Judge Francis Ricigliano presided over the case. The 12-person jury deliberated for roughly three days.

“While this defendant is going to spend many years behind bars, the Levin and Kaplan families will  to spend their rest of their lives without Yisroel and Elisheva,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement.

On April 4 of last year near 1:40 a.m., Kaplan, 20, and Levin, 21, was returning from visiting Levin’s brother in Rockland County for Passover when the 2017 Nissan Altima they were in was struck by Watkins who was driving a 2010 BMW 5501 GT, a car with a 400-horsepower engine.


Watkins was racing at least one other vehicle and going roughly 100 mph before his car swerved into the opposite lane and crashed into the Altima, which then burst into flames. Kaplan and Levin were trapped inside the car and subsequently died.

Kaplan was a Far Rockaway resident and the daughter of Joel Kaplan, the cantor for Congregation Beth Sholom, in Lawrence. Levin, 21, was a Brooklyn resident. They were engaged and planned to be married in three months.

The prosecutors in the case were Nassau County Assistant District Attorney’s Christopher Casa and Katie Zizza. They argued throughout the trial that Watkins was responsible for the deaths of Kaplan and Levin. “The defendant showed no caution for the safety of other drivers that night,” Casa said. “He knew what he was doing was dangerous and he didn’t care. He needs to be held accountable.”

Zizza said that Watkins recklessness is why two people died in the crash. “The defendant gambled with other people’s lives,” she said. “Yisroel and Elisheva lost everything because of that gamble.”

Congregation Beth Sholom sent an email before the start of the trial to encourage friends and family of Levin and Kaplan to attend the trial. More than a dozen family and friends attended on Sept. 10, as opening statements were made, including Levin’s older brother, Yakov, the last family member to see the couple before their deaths. “I remember every single detail from that day,” Yakov, 33, said referring to the day of the crash.

Garden City-based lawyer, Joseph Lo Piccolo represented Watkins and noted that his closing argument centered on the notion that there was no physical proof that Watkins was speeding at the time of the crash.

Watkins was speeding adjacent to Zakiyyah Steward, 26, in a 2016 Hyundai Genesis. On Feb. 27, Steward pleaded guilty to 17 charges ranging from second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless driving and endangerment, three vehicular traffic laws, vehicular manslaughter second-degree twice and one first-degree count, and aggravated vehicular homicide. Steward will be sentenced on Oct. 7.