Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
Twenty years after fleeing to India following a deadly high-speed crash, Ganesh Shenoy, 54, was sentenced on Friday, March 6, 2026 to up to 10 years in prison for the death of 44-year-old Philip Mastropolo at the intersection of Levittown Parkway and Old County Road in Hicksville, Nassau County. According to ABC7 New York, Shenoy had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree on February 6, 2026, bringing a measure of closure to a case that had stretched across two continents and two full decades.
The crash itself took place on April 11, 2005. Prosecutors say Shenoy was driving at twice the posted speed limit when he blew through a red light at the intersection of Levittown Parkway and Old County Road in Hicksville. His vehicle slammed into Philip Mastropolo’s car with such force that the impact demolished Mastropolo’s vehicle entirely. The collision did not stop there — the demolished car was sent skidding across the intersection and into the front of a Freightliner box truck that had been stopped at the red light on the opposite side of the intersection, officials say. First responders arrived and pronounced Mastropolo dead at the scene. He was 44 years old.
Shenoy himself was transported to the hospital for treatment following the crash, but according to ABC7 New York, he refused medical attention and left the facility. What followed was a brazen act of flight. Despite law enforcement having seized both his New York State Driver’s License and his Indian Passport, Shenoy managed to board a flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for Mumbai, India — just 14 days after the fatal crash. Authorities say he never returned to the United States and lived in India for the next 20 years.
Shenoy was finally extradited back to the United States last September, in what officials confirmed was the first extradition from India to the U.S. since 2017. The case drew significant attention not only because of the length of time Shenoy evaded justice, but because of the diplomatic and legal hurdles involved in securing his return. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly addressed the significance of the sentencing directly: “For two decades, Philip Mastropolo’s wife and children have carried the weight of his loss and the burden of knowing this cowardly defendant hid half a world away. They waited for accountability and for the day when Ganesh Shenoy was finally brought to justice. Today was that day,” Donnelly said, as reported by ABC7 New York.
The sentencing took place in a closed courtroom. Mastropolo’s daughter, Krystina Morrone, delivered a deeply personal victim impact statement that laid bare the cost her family has paid since that spring night in 2005. “My dad worked two jobs so my mother could stay home with my brother with leukemia,” she told the court. “He was a man who deserved to grow old with his family.” Turning to address Shenoy directly, Morrone said, “You did not kill a good man, you killed a great man.” As the family left the courthouse following the sentencing, reporters asked whether the outcome felt like justice. Their answer was measured and raw: “If that’s what you want to call it.”
Location & Road Context
The crash occurred at the intersection of Levittown Parkway and Old County Road in Hicksville, a busy Nassau County crossroads that sees significant local and commuter traffic. Hicksville sits in the heart of Nassau County and serves as a major commercial and residential hub on Long Island, with several heavily trafficked arterial roads intersecting throughout the hamlet. The intersection where the 2005 crash took place — where Shenoy ran the red light at twice the speed limit — is a signalized crossing serving both local neighborhood traffic and drivers moving between major destinations across central Nassau County.
Hicksville has, unfortunately, seen a pattern of serious traffic incidents at its intersections in recent years. A fatal crash on Old Country Road in Hicksville claimed two lives just weeks after Shenoy’s sentencing in March 2026, and a Farmingville man was indicted on manslaughter charges following a separate fatal crash in Hicksville that same month — underscoring persistent concerns about speeding and reckless driving on the town’s surface roads.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
The legal journey in this case was extraordinary by any measure. Following the April 11, 2005 crash, Shenoy’s New York State Driver’s License and Indian Passport were seized by police — standard procedure intended to prevent flight. Those precautions proved insufficient. Fourteen days after Mastropolo’s death, Shenoy boarded a plane at JFK Airport to Mumbai and disappeared from U.S. jurisdiction entirely. For 20 years, he lived in India while the Mastropolo family waited for accountability.
Extradition proceedings ultimately succeeded last September, with Shenoy returned to face trial — the first such extradition from India to the United States since 2017, officials confirmed. On February 6, 2026, Shenoy pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree. On March 6, 2026, Nassau County courts sentenced him to up to 10 years in prison. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office prosecuted the case, with DA Donnelly personally addressing the significance of the verdict and the decades-long wait endured by the Mastropolo family.
Broader Impact
The Shenoy case marks a rare and significant milestone in international criminal justice: the first successful extradition from India to the United States in nearly a decade. Under New York Penal Law, manslaughter in the second degree — the charge to which Shenoy pleaded guilty — carries a maximum sentence of 15 years for a class C felony, making Shenoy’s sentence of up to 10 years a substantial, though not maximum, consequence for a crime that robbed a family of a husband and father. The case serves as a stark reminder that fleeing U.S. jurisdiction does not guarantee permanent escape from prosecution, and that Nassau County authorities pursued this case across two decades and an ocean to secure a conviction.