Tokson
WHITE PLAINS – An Armonk man was sentenced Thursday to three to
nine years in state prison on his guilty plea to aggravated vehicular
homicide in connection with a head-on crash on I-684 in the Town of Bedford
that killed the other driver.
Zachary Tokson, 23, had also pled guilty to manslaughter and vehicular
assault in the December 13, 2015 death of Elena Lopez.
Tokson was driving a Lexus SUV northbound in the southbound lanes of the
highway before 6 p.m. and struck the Lopez car, a Ford Focus station wagon.
Lopez died instantly in the crash; Tokson suffered a laceration over his
eye and his passenger suffered serious injuries that required her hospitalization.
Investigation found that Tokson had been drinking hours before at a Brewster
bar and after leaving there, he stopped for food then parked in a Bedford
rest area to take a nap. When they woke up, he began driving the wrong
way on I-684 for over a mile before the crash.
A search of his vehicle found a closed empty bottle of whiskey and a mixed
alcohol drink inside a closed soda bottle. He blood-alcohol content was
over the .08 percent legal limit.
Assistant District Attorney Nicholas DiCostanzo of the Superior Court
Trial Division prosecuted the case.
