Miriam Yarimi Case: Guilty Plea, Sentencing, and Lawsuit

The Miriam Yarimi case centers on a Brooklyn wigmaker who killed a mother and her two young daughters by speeding through a red light on Ocean Parkway in March 2025 while driving on a suspended license. Yarimi pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced on November 19, 2025 to three to nine years in prison. She now faces a civil damages trial after a judge rejected her attempt to blame the crash on a medical emergency.¹

The Ocean Parkway Crash

On the afternoon of March 29, 2025, Natasha Saada, 34, was crossing Ocean Parkway at Quentin Road in Midwood, holding the hands of her three children. Yarimi, then 32, was driving a 2023 Audi A3 with the vanity plate “WIGM8KER.” Event-recorder data pulled from the car showed it was traveling roughly 68 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone, with the accelerator floored and no braking.¹

Yarimi had already blown through a red light one block earlier. At the intersection she ran another red, rear-ended a Toyota Camry that had stopped for pedestrians, and hurtled into the crosswalk. The Audi flipped and came to rest on its roof about 130 feet from the point of impact. Natasha and her daughters Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5, were killed at the scene. Her four-year-old son Philip survived but suffered skull fractures, brain bleeding, and injuries that required the removal of a kidney.¹ He was discharged from the hospital on May 12, 2025.²

According to the New York Post, Yarimi told first responders at the scene that she was “possessed” and had “the devil in me.”³

A Suspended License and 93 Violations

Yarimi should not have been behind the wheel. Her license was suspended at the time of the crash, and since September 2023 she had racked up 93 moving violations, including more than 20 speeding tickets in school zones, with over $10,000 in unpaid fines.⁴ The New York Times put the fines tied to her vehicle at more than $12,000.⁵ Transportation Alternatives reported the Audi alone had drawn more than 90 tickets, with over 13 school-zone speeding tickets in 2024.⁶

Charges and Guilty Plea

A Brooklyn grand jury returned a 20-count indictment. Yarimi was arraigned on April 16, 2025 before Kings County Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on charges including second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and second-degree assault. She pleaded not guilty and was held without bail.⁷

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called the crash “one of the worst I’ve seen in over 25 years as a prosecutor,” saying it “wasn’t an accident.”⁷

On October 22, 2025, Yarimi pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree manslaughter in satisfaction of the full indictment. The plea, entered before Justice Chun, carried an agreed sentence of three to nine years and a waiver of her right to appeal.⁸ Prosecutors had asked for the maximum of five to 15 years and opposed the deal, but the judge accepted the plea within his authority.¹

Sentencing and Reaction

Yarimi was sentenced on November 19, 2025. She told the court, “There’s a lot of sorrow and pain and remorse, regret I feel in my heart. I accept full responsibility for my actions… I think about the victims every day.” Her defense attorney, Joseph Amsel, described her as a mother with no prior criminal history and argued that “we should all be judged not based on our worst moments.”⁹

The three-to-nine-year term drew sharp criticism. Gonzalez acknowledged the sentence was “shorter than the maximum we recommended” but said it “sends a clear message that reckless driving will be vigorously prosecuted.” He said Yarimi “should not have been driving a car that day.”¹ The Saada family’s attorney, Herschel Kulefsky, called the sentence “the bare minimum” and said “even the maximum sentence probably would not be sufficient in this case.”⁹

The Wrongful Death Lawsuit

The Saada family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Yarimi, and in the civil case she reversed course. In a handwritten letter to the court dated March 26, 2026, she claimed a “medical emergency” had caused her to lose consciousness for about five seconds while driving on Ocean Parkway. “Therefore, I am not liable for this accident,” she wrote.¹⁰ She had never raised any medical episode with police or in criminal court, and no medical records supporting the claim were submitted.¹¹

The claim contradicted her sworn plea and her sentencing statement accepting “full responsibility.” Prosecutors had also alleged that in a recorded jail call, Yarimi discussed “faking mental illness.” She additionally filed a third-party claim against the owner and driver of the Uber she struck, arguing their negligence was the “proximate cause” of the collision.¹²

On April 23, 2026, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Steven Mostofsky ruled that Yarimi’s criminal guilty plea was sufficient to establish liability in the civil case, rejecting her attempt to avoid it and clearing the way for a jury trial on damages.¹⁰ That trial was scheduled for the week of June 29, 2026.¹¹

The Stop Super Speeders Bill

Yarimi’s driving record fueled a push for the New York State “Stop Super Speeders” bill, which would require speed-limiting devices in the cars of drivers who receive 16 or more speeding tickets in a single year, capping them at five miles per hour above the posted limit. Joe Jankowski of Families for Safe Streets said “if the Stop Super Speeders bill had passed, this family would still be alive.”¹³

The measure passed the State Senate on June 12, 2025 by a vote of 44 to 15 and was sent to the Assembly the same day. It was referred to the Assembly Transportation Committee but never received a vote, and on January 7, 2026 it was marked as having died in the Assembly and returned to the Senate.¹⁴ Gonzalez said he stands “with advocates urging legislation to require speed-limiting devices for drivers who have shown they cannot operate safely.”¹

1
Brooklyn 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
2
Frum News. Flatbush Thank You Hashem: Pinchas Raphael Saada Released From Hospital After Horrific Crash
3
New York Post. NYC Wigmaker Now Blames Medical Emergency for Horror Crash That Killed 3
4
Fox 5 New York. Brooklyn Influencer Ocean Parkway Crash
5
The New York Times. Wigmaker Hit-and-Run Sentence
6
NBC New York. Brooklyn Speeder Sentenced Ocean Parkway Crash
7
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Driver Who Killed Mother and Two Daughters While Allegedly Speeding Through a Red Light Indicted for Manslaughter
8
NYC Streetsblog. People v. Miriam Yarimi Sentencing Memorandum
9
CBS News New York. Ocean Parkway Midwood Brooklyn Crash Sentencing
10
New York Post. NYC Wigmaker Who Fatally Mowed Down Mom and 2 Daughters Will Face Trial in Family’s Lawsuit
11
News 12 Brooklyn. Woman Pled Guilty to Killing 3 in Crash, Now Blaming Medical Episode in Civil Suit
12
Yahoo News. Miriam Yarimi Owned Killing 3
13
Transportation Alternatives. Statement From Transportation Alternatives on Sentencing of Miriam Yarimi
14
New York State Senate. Senate Bill S4045A