A jury last week convicted a 20-year-old man on two counts of involuntary manslaughter for a June 2022 crash that killed two Oakton High School students.
The jury on April 26 sentenced Usman Shahid to four years in prison. A judge will finalize the sentence later this year and has the power to lessen the sentence, but not increase it.
Shortly before noon on June 7, 2022, Usman Shahid was traveling south on Blake Lane in Oakton at a speed significantly above the 35-mph speed limit when he collided with a sport-utility vehicle that was attempting to make a left turn onto Five Oaks Road.
Shahid’s vehicle then careened onto the sidewalk, striking and killing Ada Gabriela Martinez Nolasco, 14, and Leeyan Hanjia Yan, 15, and injuring a third student as the girls walked home from school.
At trial, prosecutors proved that Shahid’s high rate of speed and lack of evasive action to avoid the situation were responsible for both the initial crash and the subsequent pedestrian collision.
A crash expert also testified that the vehicle Shahid was driving contained a data recorder indicating that Shahid continued to accelerate, from 60 to 81 mph, in the five seconds immediately preceding the crash as he approached the intersection. The data recorder also indicated that Shahid did not attempt to apply the brakes, prosecutors said.
