Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News
Franklin Reyes in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, November 6, 2013. Reyes is charged with killing 4-year-old Ariel Russo and severly injuring her grandmother, Katia Gutierrez, when he crashed a car into them on the Upper West Side.
The teenage motorist who fatally struck a 4-year-old Manhattan girl while fleeing from cops is considering a pothole defense.
Franklin Reyes’ lawyer is seeking roadwork records to buttress the argument that street conditions figured into the tragic crash that left little Ariel Russo dead.
“If the vehicle went over a pothole, it would explain how it went out of control,” attorney Martin Schmukler said after a brief appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court.
But Ariel’s still-grieving parents fumed at the prospect of Reyes’ lawyer deploying a pothole defense.
RELATED: DA PUSHES MAX SENTENCE FOR TEEN DRIVER WHO KILLED ARIEL RUSSO
“I feel really frustrated that he’s trying to blame a pothole,” Sofia Russo, the girl’s mother, said. “He seems like the type of person to put the blame everywhere else except” on himself.
Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News
Katia Gutierrez, the grandmother of Ariel Russo, outside Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, November 6, 2013.
“How are you going to blame it on a pothole?” chimed in Ariel’s dad, Alan Russo. “He shouldn’t have been driving the car in the first place.”
Reyes was charged with manslaughter, felony assault and other counts in June after, police said, he mowed down Ariel while she was walking with her grandmother down W. 97th St. near Amsterdam Ave.
Katie Gutierrez, 55, survived the crash but was badly hurt.
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The 17-year-old Chelsea teen was unlicensed and driving his parents’ SUV without their permission at the time of the crash, police said.
Reyes had been pulled over for driving erratically minutes before the devastating crash, and as cops were approaching his folks’ Nissan, he hit the gas and took off.
Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News
Alan Russo, 28 and Sofia Russo, 27, the parents of Ariel Russo, outside Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, November 6, 2013.
Prosecutors said in September that if Reyes were to plead guilty to manslaughter, they would not recommend anything below a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
Schmukler said no way.
“I’m not going along with putting teenagers in jail — that’s it,” Schmukler said. “I think that’s cold-blooded grandstanding.”
Ariel’s mom said her family won’t let her daughter’s death go unavenged. She said they will be at every one of Reyes’ court appearances “no matter how long it takes… even if it takes two or three years.”
“We can’t let (the judge) forget about (Ariel), so we have to be there and represent her,” Sofia Russo said.
Reyes is due back in court on Dec. 18.
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