Long Island Man Found Guilty In DWI Crash That Paralyzed Friend

BAYVILLE, NY — A Bayville man who prosecutors say boasted about fatal car crashes just prior to a violent 2019 drunken driving crash that left his friend a quadriplegic was convicted Thursday.

Anthony Chiantella, 29, was drunk and high on cocaine as he sped along — filming himself — inside the car of his passenger, Nicholas Mustakas, before he lost control of the car and it crashed on the Wantagh State Parkway, Nassau County prosecutors said. Chiantella had a broken pelvis and a lacerated liver, and Mustakas, then 23, had collapsed lungs and was paralyzed from the neck down, prosecutors said.

In a statement following the guilty verdict, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas described Chiantella as the “epitome of a depraved driver, broadcasting himself driving 130 mph while drinking and high on cocaine, resulting in a crash that paralyzed his passenger and threatened the lives of everyone in his path.”

“He was recorded saying he knows that people die in crashes, it is just luck that he did not take the lives of innocent drivers on the road with him," Singas said.

Chiantella was found guilty of assault, vehicular assault and reckless endangerment, as well as drunken driving and driving under the combined influence of alcohol and a drug.

He faces up to 25 years in state prison at his sentencing in June.

His trial was the first to move forward in Nassau since the late-fall, when jury trials were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The guilty verdict came two hours after a closing argument in which a prosecutor played videos allegedly of Chiantella moments before the crash, Newsday reported.

Prosecutor Christopher Casa told jurors Chiantella narrated the videos before posting them to Snapchat just before the Feb. 2, 2019, crash, the outlet reported.

The video footage showed the car’s speedometer was over 130 mph, and Chiantella could be heard describing the car as swerving, and then talking about fatal car crashes while behind the wheel, Newsday reported.

"He was giving you a play-by-play of what he was doing," Casa said.

In his closing arguments, defense attorney, Robert Schalk of Mineola, said prosecutors did not prove Chiantella was driving at the time of the crash and criticized the police investigation, as well as the blood sample that was drawn from him following the crash, and contradicting testimony, according to Newsday.

Casa noted the verdict came 804 days after Mustakas walked the last time, the outlet reported.

"He hasn’t taken another step since and he probably never will. The defendant did that," he said.

Alex Costello contributed additional reporting to this story.