Tiffany Murdaugh was sentenced to 2–6 years in prison and three years post-release supervision on Wednesday, for the Apr. 13, 2015, hit-and-run that injured Heather Hensl.
BY BILL EGBERT
More than a year after she jumped a curb on Beekman St. near the Spruce Street School and ran down into a mother of two before fleeing the scene, an infamous hit-and-run driver finally saw justice on Aug. 3, receiving a sentence of up to six years in prison.
Tiffany Murdaugh pleaded guilty on June 1 to charges of second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment in connection to the Apr. 13, 2015, incident in which she narrowly missed a group of schoolchildren as she drove up the sidewalk during the Spruce Street School’s morning drop-off.
Judge Gregory Carro sentenced Murdaugh to 2–6 years in prison for the reckless endangerment charge, and three years of post-release supervision in connection with the assault charge.
Video from the incident showed Murdaugh, who lives in Philadelphia, swerving onto the sidewalk in her 2013 Dodge Challenger around 8 a.m. near the intersection of William St. right next to the school.
As she careened nearly half a block down the crowded sidewalk, Murdaugh slammed into Heather Hensl, who was on her way to work — literally knocking the 37-year-old mother of two out of her shoes and gravely injuring her left leg.
After fleeing the scene of the Beekman St. mayhem, Murdaugh drove over the Brooklyn Bridge and got into another accident in Crown Heights, where she rear-ended another car and then abandoned her own.
As weeks passed with police showing no signs of progress in the case, Hensl spoke to Downtown Express a month after the crash, pleading for justice. A week later, police announced Murdaugh’s arrest.
After the five weeks it took to arrest Murdaugh, repeated delays and postponements of her case allowed more than a year to pass before she finally pleaded guilty in June.
