NYC mother pleads guilty in fatal crash

NEW YORK, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A 32-year-old New York woman has pleaded guilty to 16 counts for crashing a carload of girls while driving drunk, killing one of them.

After Carmen Huertas' plea Tuesday, Lenny Rosada cried in the Manhattan courtroom over the loss of his 11-year-old daughter Leandra, who was killed when the speeding station wagon flipped on Henry Hudson Parkway in October, the New York Daily News reported.

Rosado, upset Huertas was charged with nothing more serious than manslaughter, waged a high-profile campaign that led to Leandra's Law, which makes it a felony to drive drunk with a child in a car.

"I didn't want to let my little girl down," Rosado, a resident of the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, told the Daily News. "(Huertas) took my daughter's life. I made a promise to my daughter that I was going to change these laws."

Huertas, whose 11-year-old daughter was among six girls injured in the crash, faces two to 12 years in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 1 for drunken driving, vehicular assault, second-degree manslaughter and other charges.

Huertas was to take the girls to a slumber party but instead took them to a party in Chelsea without telling their parents, the Daily News said.