Suspect in 2023 fatal Bronx car wash hit-and-run charged with manslaughter
Trina Bryant was arrested Wednesday after the NYPD said she struck and killed Felix Thomas Bontia in the Bronx in February 2023.
She pled not guilty to an 11-count indictment charging her with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, driving while under the influence of alcohol, and more.
According to police, Bryant was driving a Ford Escape with Georgia plates when it veered into a bus lane and struck a Toyota RAV4 that Bontia was drying off on Webster Avenue near 168th Street in the borough's Concourse Village section.
Bontia was pinned between the cars and did not survive.
Investigators at the time said there were two women in the Ford Escape, the driver and a front-seat passenger, who drove a short distance away before they fled on foot.
The accident, which occurred at around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023, was captured on surveillance video.
Bontia worked at the car wash for about a year while his family was back home in Mexico, CBS News New York reported at the time. His friends and coworkers in the city said they called him Benito Felix.
The driver in the RAV4 was hospitalized with minor injuries.
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