Ajudge sentenced Corey Bieniek to 18 years in prison last week for causing the death of 21-year-old Samar Seliem, who had been backing out of her driveway when Bieniek’s speeding vehicle hit her car.
Bieniek, 20, of the Cliffwood Beach section, had been driving while intoxicated when he hit Seliem’s vehicle in front of her family’s Marlboro Road home Dec. 30.
Families on both sides pleaded with Judge James Mulvihill in Superior Court, New Brunswick, before he rendered his decision Nov. 28.
“My view is that long prison sentences should be reserved for bad people,” said Bieniek’s attorney, Joseph Benedict. “The sentence Corey received was excessive and unnecessary.”
Authorities said Bieniek was driving his Jeep Cherokee at over 100 mph on Marlboro Road when he struck Seliem’s Mitsubishi Mirage as she backed out of her driveway in order to allow another family member to leave. The crash pushed Seliem’s vehicle some 240 feet down the road. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said the sentence was just, and came by his recommendation to Mulvihill.
“He was going 105 mph in a residential neighborhood at 10:30 at night,” Sewitch said. “I’ve never, ever seen anything like this before.”
Bieniek pleaded guilty in August to aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated. Theoretically, he could have received a 40- year prison sentence if not for a plea deal struck by his attorney.
“There’s no way, had he gone to trial, that he would have gotten 40 years,” Sewitch said. “I don’t think he would have gotten much more time if he went to trial. This is one of the harsher sentences.”
The reason Bieniek was charged with aggravated manslaughter instead of vehicular homicide, Sewitch said, was because it was proved that he caused Seliem’s death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.
Because his charges fall under the No Early Release Act, Bieniek will not be eligible for parole until he serves 85 percent, or 15 years, of his sentence.
Benedict said such restrictions are generally reserved for violent crimes.
“It’s the longest sentence I’ve been aware of for comparable conduct,” Benedict said. “I think the judge was just swayed by the emotion that filled the courtroom.”
The victim’s parents, Mona and Abou Seliem, pleaded with Mulvihill not to treat Bieniek with leniency, speaking of their daughter’s untimely death and their immense grief.
The Seliems, who could not be reached for this story, have previously told the Suburban that their daughter was a good, caring person. She and her family moved to the United States from Egypt five years ago.
“Samar loved everyone in America,” her father said. “She loved all the people.”
Bieniek admitted to drinking about nine beers and a shot of vodka before driving the night of Dec. 29, as well as smoking marijuana earlier in the day. His blood alcohol level was .17 percent, which is more than twice the legal limit, at the time of the accident.
“He’s really a good kid who did a bad thing under the influence of alcohol and drugs,” Benedict said.
Benedict cited problems with addiction in the Bieniek family as part of his client’s defense. Bieniek’s father, who has been sober for two years, spoke up on his son’s behalf in court.
“The father said, ‘Look, I’m 90 percent responsible for what happened here,’” Benedict said.
Bieniek’s grandmother, who had lost a 17-year-old son in a car accident in which the driver went unpunished, also pleaded with the judge to be lenient on her grandson, according to Benedict.
“She lost her son, and now she’s lost her grandson,” Benedict said.
Corey Bieniek issued an emotional apology in the courtroom, saying that no sentence could compare to the results of his actions, The Star-Ledger reported.
Mulvihill said there was no excuse for what Bieniek did.
“We know substance abuse is a sickness, but it doesn’t excuse getting drunk, getting into a car and doing 100 mph and killing a person,” the judge said, according to the newspaper.
In addition to his time in prison, Bieniek must pay $2,600 in fines and restitution and relinquish his driver’s license for 10 years after his release. Five years of his sentence, imposed for an ankle injury to 17-year-old passenger Kristine Makowka, of Old Bridge, will run concurrently to his sentencing for Seliem’s death.
Seliem, an interior design student at Kean University who was to graduate in 2008, was celebrating the eve of Eid-ul- Adha, a Muslim holiday, with her family on the night of the accident. They had just found out she achieved honors in her courses at school.
In addition to her parents, Seliem is survived by her sister, Salma, now a high school senior, and a brother, Islam, now 24.