Thief Who Caused Death of Holbrook Woman Sentenced

A Brooklyn man could be spending 22 years in state prison after he was sentenced for killing a 62 year old Holbrook woman while fleeing the scene of a theft, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

Cordell Tucker, 26, was convicted in May of second-degree manslaughter, second degree assault, third degree grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, reckless endangerment and several traffic violations. On June 27 He was sentenced to the maximum 7 and 1/3 to 22 years for the crime.

According to Spota, Tucker was sentenced on the two-year anniversary of the crime that claimed the life of Gail Sacher. 

"After stealing $5,000 worth of jeans from the True Religion Store in the Tanger Outlet Center in Riverhead, Tucker drove at a high rate of speed, at times in excess of 100 mph, on the LIE, Route 112 and Sunrise Highway,” said DA Spota in a release.  “In Bohemia, on the Sunrise service road at the intersection with Lincoln Avenue, he ran a red light and broadsided Gail and Alan Sacher’s car, fatally injuring Mrs. Sacher and critically injuring her husband.”

Sacher died of her injuries in Southside Hospital in Bay Shore two hours after the crash.