Woman gets more than 20 years for striking, killing NYPD detective while drunk driving

Jessica Beauvais was convicted of aggravated manslaughter and leaving scene of incident

Feb 24, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who struck and killed a New York City police detective after speeding through an NYPD roadblock while driving drunk was sentenced Wednesday to more than 20 years in prison.

A jury convicted Jessica Beauvais, 35, of Hempstead of aggravated manslaughter and other charges in October. She was arrested in April 2021 following the death of 43-year-old Anastasios Tsakos.

Jessica Beauvais enters the courtroom for her sentencing at the Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024 in New York. (Olivia Falcigno/Newsday via AP)

Tsakos, a father of two and 14-year veteran of the police department, was struck and killed around 2 a.m. on April 27, 2021, while assisting officers at the scene of another fatal crash on the Long Island Expressway in Queens.

Beauvais had a blood alcohol content that was nearly twice the legal limit for driving two hours after the accident, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said, and she also was without a valid license.

“Her license had been suspended, she was drunk and had smoked marijuana,” Katz said in a news release Wednesday. “For everyone’s safety and wellbeing, including her own, the defendant should not have been behind the wheel of a car.”