Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Drunk Driver Who Killed Just-Engaged Orthodox Couple Hit With Manslaughter Charge

Police slapped manslaughter charges on one of the drivers in a deadly chain-reaction car crash that claimed the lives of a recently engaged Orthodox couple.

Rahmel Watkins, 35, of Brooklyn, who was already charged with drunk driving, was additionally charged on Monday with two counts of manslaughter.

The tragedy occurred at 1:40 am on April 4 on the Nassau Expressway near JFK International Airport. Yisroel Levin, 21, of Brooklyn, and Elisheva Kaplan, 20, of Queens, were driving when their sedan was caught in the chain reaction crash, which involved five cars. Levin and Kaplan’s car reportedly caught on fire, killing them. The two were engaged one week earlier.

Zakiyyah Steward, also from Brooklyn, reportedly also prompted the crash. The twenty-five year old, who was hit with four charges, including pot possession and driving while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, is no stranger to being in court. She has previously faced charges for burglary.

“I’ll take the blame for giving her too many chances,” Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino who ruled on Steward’s previous case told Yeshiva World.

Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.