On Sunday afternoon, one week after a car accident on Old Stone Highway claimed the life of an East Hampton High School student, small groups of teenagers in black summer clothes could be seen walking quietly up to the parish hall of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton to attend her funeral.
Scarleth Milena Urgiles Samaniego, 19, a junior at East Hampton High School, was a passenger in a 2009 Toyota Camry driven by Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo-Fuertes, 18, when, according to the accident report, the car failed to navigate a curve on Old Stone Highway, went off the road, struck a tree head-on, and overturned. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr. Barrionuevo-Fuertes was arrested at the scene, held overnight at East Hampton Town police headquarters in Wainscott, and arraigned the following afternoon before East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky on charges of driving while intoxicated as a first offense, endangering the welfare of a child, and the felony of aggravated D.W.I. with a child passenger under 16 years old. Unable to post bail, which was set by Justice Tekulsky at $400,000 cash or $800,000 bond, he was then remanded into the custody of the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Yaphank.
His attorney, Melissa Aguanno, confirmed last Thursday afternoon that the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office had notified her that it would be convening a grand jury on upgraded charges the following day. Mr. Barrionuevo-Fuertes’s next court appearance will be an arraignment in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, she said, on any new charges.
Another passenger, Jennifer Amon Barrera, 18, had been airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where she was listed in “serious but stable condition” on June 16. (The initial police report on the accident incorrectly spelled her surname. The high school principal, Sara Smith, provided the correct spelling on Tuesday.) Five other teenage passengers were transported by ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. Town police have not yet provided updates on their conditions. All of them are students at East Hampton High School.
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Correction: Due to an editing error, the original article indicated that Mr. Barrionuevo-Fuertes would be arraigned in Riverhead on Friday, June 27. That arraignment has not yet been scheduled.
