A speeding Staten Island driver found out his pregnant 23-year-old fiancé died in a car crash moments before appearing in court for manslaughter.
Adem Nikeziq, 30, broke down in court on Monday after he was told moments before that his fiancé Adriana Sylmetaj and their unborn child were dead after he crashed a Dodge Challenger while driving at around 100mph early Sunday morning.
Nikeziq appeared in court weeping while wearing a hospital gown and in a wheelchair, photos obtained by The New York Post showed.
‘No one told him that his fiancé and baby had passed,’ lawyer Mark Fonte told the news outlet. ‘When I told him, he broke down crying, sobbing. He was at first completely in disbelief.’
Nikeziq was charged with manslaughter, driving under the influence, criminally negligent homicide and vehicular assault.
Adriana Sylmetaj and her unborn baby were killed at 4.45am on Sunday morning after her fiancé drove into a pole. Adem Nikeziq, 30, wept in court after discovering his fiancé died in a crash
Nikeziq was allegedly drunk when he crashed the car while travelling at more than 100 mph
Prosecutors explained in court how Sylmetaj’s body was found at the scene when police arrived.
‘She was found at the intersection,’ Nicholas Agostino, assistant district attorney, said. ‘Her severed leg was found 20 feet past her body. Her unborn child, ripped from her body, was found 20 feet past her leg.’
Nikeziq claimed that a car had cut him off when he plowed into a utility pole at around 5am on Sunday morning, causing the vehicle to break into three parts.
Agostino alleged Nikesiq was drinking when the crash occurred and he was driving at a high speed.
He will be held on $400,000 cash bail and is expected to return back in court on Thursday.
Sylmetaj and Nikesiq were expecting a daughter in April.
The brother of Adriana Sylmetaj said how excited his sister was to become a mother.
‘She was excited when she learned she was going to be a mother. It was something new to her. She couldn’t wait to see the baby born,’ her brother, Al Sylmetaj, told the New York Daily News.
‘They were thinking on names but I don’t think they came to any decision,’ he added. ‘They were planning on a baby shower.’
Images emerged of the mangled car after the pregnant woman was killed. Prosecutors explained in court how Sylmetaj’s body was found at the scene when police arrived. The baby had been torn out from her
Adriana Sylmetaj was ejected from the car when it collided with a utility pole at around 5am on Sunday morning, causing the vehicle to break into three parts
The brother of Adriana Sylmetaj, 23, who died alongside her unborn daughter in a high sped car crash in Staten Island has spoken of his sister’s excitement over her pregnancy
Nikeziq has a checkered driving history, including a 2017 arrest for drunken driving and driving with a suspended license, police sources told the Daily News. In 2019 he was also arrested for driving with a suspended license and resisting arrest.
Sylmetaj’s brother said Nikeziq seemed untrustworthy and was often drunk after his father past away.
‘I had this feeling the outcome was going to be this way,’ Al said. ‘Every time he presented himself, he was under the influence – not that he was uncontrollable, but how he articulated himself.’
‘He would always ask if I wanted to go have a drink,’ he said. ‘My birthday just passed and he was inviting me to go out to have a drink but I just said no thank you.’
Sylmetaj and Nikesiq, who was often drunk, her brother says, were expecting a daughter in April
The Albanian couple were traveling southbound on Hylan Boulevard in New Dorp at 4.44am when Nikesiq lost control. The vehicle hit a barrier wall before spinning out and crashing into a wooden utility pole, police said.
It was reported that the severity of the impact caused Sylmetaj to be ejected from the car and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Nikeziq, a resident of the borough, was taken to the Staten Island University North Hospital after police noticed he was drunk, the spokesman said.
In a tribute posted to Sylmetaj online, Nikeziq was described as ‘a shame to the Albanian community’.
‘He’s going away for the rest of his life and that’s still not good enough for that piece of s**t,’ one grieving relative of Sylmetaj told the Post outside her home on Sunday.
‘They couldn’t save the baby,’ he said. ‘We’re never going to be ok. None of us. We’ve experienced a terrible tragedy.’
‘I don’t understand how the [utility] pole is still standing,’ Mario Basso, 31, owner of H20 Auto Spa near the site of the crash told The Post. ‘It was hit so hard.’
The severity of the impact caused Sylmetaj to be ejected from the car. She was pronounced dead at the scene
The scene in the aftermath of the fatal crash, The collationed happened as the couple was traveling at more than 100 mph
A tire is seen removed from the vehicle in the aftermath
