The Ellie Yarimi case involves Miriam “Ellie” Yarimi, a Brooklyn wigmaker and social media influencer who killed 34-year-old Natasha Saada and two of her young daughters when she ran a red light at roughly 68 miles per hour on Ocean Parkway in March 2025. She pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree manslaughter, was sentenced to three to nine years in state prison, and her extensive history of unpaid speeding tickets became the driving example behind New York’s Stop Super Speeders law, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2026.
What Happened on Ocean Parkway
Just after 1:00 p.m. on March 29, 2025, Yarimi was driving a blue 2023 Audi A3 with a vanity plate reading “WIGM8KER” northbound on Ocean Parkway in Midwood, Brooklyn.1Yahoo News. Social Media Influencer Gets 3 to 9 Years in Prison Black-box data from the car showed she was traveling around 68 mph in a 25-mph zone with the gas pedal fully depressed and no brakes applied. Surveillance video caught her on a cell phone and running a red light one block before the intersection where the crash occurred.2Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Driver Sentenced to Up to Nine Years in Prison for Killing Mother and Two Daughters While Speeding Through a Red Light
At Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road, Yarimi ran a second red light, struck a Toyota Camry waiting for pedestrians, and plowed into Natasha Saada and her three children as they crossed in a crosswalk. The Audi flipped onto its roof and slid about 130 feet before stopping.2Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Driver Sentenced to Up to Nine Years in Prison for Killing Mother and Two Daughters While Speeding Through a Red Light Natasha and daughters Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5, were pronounced dead at the scene. Four-year-old Philip Saada survived with skull fractures, brain bleeding, and injuries so severe that doctors at Maimonides Medical Center had to remove one of his kidneys.3New York Post. Brooklyn Boy Struck by Speeding Wigmaker Loses Kidney as He Fights for Life
Yarimi was driving on a suspended license. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the suspension but did not disclose the reason.4Streetsblog NYC. Slaughter of the Innocents: Recidivist Speeder Kills Three When Hatzolah paramedics reached her overturned car, she reportedly told them she was “possessed” and had “the devil in me.” At her hospital-bed arraignment she said: “The devil’s in my eyes. I’m haunted inside. I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t hurt anyone. Prove it.” She was transferred to the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital.5New York Post. Wigmaker in Brooklyn Horror Crash Went Over the Edge
A Driving Record Full of Warnings
The Audi Yarimi was driving had accumulated more than 90 traffic tickets.6NBC New York. Brooklyn Speeder Sentenced in Ocean Parkway Crash4Streetsblog NYC. Slaughter of the Innocents: Recidivist Speeder Kills Three7CBS News New York. Ocean Parkway Midwood Brooklyn Crash Sentencing8The New York Times. Wigmaker Sentenced in Hit-and-Run
Who Ellie Yarimi Is
Yarimi ran a wig-making business she promoted on Instagram (as @iitsanellie) and TikTok, where she had more than 32,000 followers. Her posts moved between wig content and photos of her daughter and increasingly erratic material, including conspiracy theories about the CIA and claims that she was being watched, with hidden cameras planted in her home.9New York Post. NYC Wigmaker Charged With Fatally Mowing Down Mom, Kids Has History of Paranoid Claims Online
People who knew her described a long history of mental illness. A neighbor said she was a “caring mother when on her medication but became erratic when she stopped taking it.”10Ynet News. Brooklyn Crash Driver Claimed She Was Possessed Childhood friend Ahuva Katzin said Yarimi had been “sick from very, very young,” had a breakdown as a teenager, and in the months before the crash had been “screaming for help from the rooftops.”5New York Post. Wigmaker in Brooklyn Horror Crash Went Over the Edge
In October 2024, police involuntarily committed Yarimi to a psychiatric ward at Coney Island Hospital for two weeks after an ex-partner reportedly told them she was suicidal. In January 2025, two months before the fatal crash, she filed a notice of claim seeking $5 million from the city and the hospital, alleging false imprisonment and medical malpractice.11New York Daily News. Influencer Wigmaker Miriam Yarimi Involuntarily Committed to Psych Ward She had also sued the City of New York in June 2023, alleging she was groomed and raped by a uniformed NYPD officer at age 14. That case settled in December 2024 for $2 million.12New York Post. Driver Accused of Mowing Down Mom, Her Two Daughters Is Big-Spending Wigmaker Who Won $2M From NYPD Lawsuit
The Criminal Case and Sentence
A Brooklyn grand jury indicted Yarimi on May 14, 2025, on charges including second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called it “one of the worst I’ve seen in over 25 years as a prosecutor,” adding: “It wasn’t an accident. This defendant’s unconscionably dangerous driving wiped out a family.”13Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Driver Who Killed Mother and Two Daughters Indicted for Manslaughter
On October 22, 2025, Yarimi pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree manslaughter and admitted her reckless driving caused the crash.14News 12. Woman Pled Guilty to Killing 3 in Crash, Now Blaming Medical Episode in Civil Suit Prosecutors asked for the maximum of five to 15 years. On November 19, 2025, Justice Danny Chun handed down an indeterminate sentence of three to nine years in prison.2Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Driver Sentenced to Up to Nine Years in Prison for Killing Mother and Two Daughters While Speeding Through a Red Light
At sentencing Yarimi wept and told the court, “I accept full responsibility for my actions.” The Saada family’s attorney, Herschel Kulefsky, was skeptical, saying Yarimi had earlier told him, “Why should I apologize? I’m the victim over here,” and suggesting the apology was aimed at shielding her assets from civil litigation.15NY1. Driver Sentenced to Prison for Fatally Hitting Mom, Two Kids in Brooklyn
The Civil Lawsuit and a Late Medical Defense
The Saada family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Yarimi. In a handwritten affidavit dated March 26, 2026, she raised a defense not mentioned during the criminal case: she claimed a “medical emergency” had caused her to lose consciousness five seconds into driving. She wrote, “It is my contention that but for the medical emergency that I experienced this accident would not have happened.”16New York Post. NYC Wigmaker Now Blames Medical Emergency for Horror Crash That Killed 3
Kulefsky called it a “sham excuse” invented to avoid financial liability, noting she had not raised it with police or in any criminal proceeding. “She didn’t have the story until this motion was made,” he said.17News 12. Woman Pled Guilty to Killing 3 in Crash, Now Blaming Medical Episode in Civil Suit Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Steven Mostofsky rejected the medical emergency defense and ruled Yarimi liable, finding her manslaughter plea established responsibility. A jury will decide the damages owed to the Saada family.18New York Post. NYC Wigmaker Who Fatally Mowed Down Mom, 2 Daughters Will Face Trial in Family’s Lawsuit
The Stop Super Speeders Law
The Saada deaths gave traffic safety advocates a case that could not be argued around. Transportation Alternatives pointed out that Yarimi’s vehicle had received 18 school-zone speeding tickets in 2024 alone, and used the case to press for legislation targeting chronic speeders.19Transportation Alternatives. Statement on Sentencing of Miriam Yarimi
State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher sponsored the Stop Super Speeders bill. Under it, drivers who accumulate 16 or more speeding tickets in a 12-month period must install intelligent speed assistance technology in their vehicles at their own expense; the device prevents the car from exceeding the posted limit by more than 5 mph.19Transportation Alternatives. Statement on Sentencing of Miriam Yarimi The Senate passed the bill in June 2025, but it initially stalled in the Assembly.20New York State Senate. Senate Bill S4045A
By May 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the measure into law as part of the state budget. Offending drivers must install the roughly $1,500 speed-limiting device within 45 days of receiving a 16th ticket, with escalating fines and possible registration suspension for noncompliance. The law takes effect in 2027 to give the city time to build out the administrative systems needed to enforce it.21NY1. Crash Survivors Hope Super Speeders Law Will Prevent Their Pain