Finally facing justice for killing two in a Long Island street drag race, a 70-year-old man who hid out for 12 years in the tiny European republic of San Marino was sentenced yesterday to five to 15 years behind bars.
But Ugo Berardi “will serve probably more than 10 years, based on the fact that he fled the jurisdiction,” said Nassau County prosecutor Robert Biancavilla.
After being convicted of manslaughter, Berardi fled to the country of his birth, San Marino – which is surrounded by Italy and is one-tenth the size of New York City – because it lacks an extradition treaty with the United States.
But Berardi – convicted of manslaughter in the drag-race killings of Marci Singer, 48, of Dix Hills, and her mother, Sarah Gerstein, 71 – was finally nabbed in October when he tried to enter Switzerland.
Berardi was returned to Long Island Thursday night.
For Singers’ two kids, Mark, 36, and Jill, 37, justice was finally served after 12 years of agony and despair.
The siblings stared down Berardi as he appeared before a Nassau County judge.
“I just wanted to look him in the eye,” said Mark Singer, a Long Island doctor.
“I needed to see the man who killed my mother and my grandmother put away. I’d like to see him go to jail for the rest of his life.”
Mark Singer, a married father of two, said his family finally has “closure,” adding that Berardi “will now be where he belongs.”
On Nov. 26, 1990, the victims and Gerstein’s husband, David, 75, were pulling out of the parking lot of a Westbury restaurant when a speeding car driven by Berardi slammed into their vehicle.
The victims’ car was then rear-ended by a car driven by Saul Portillo, 19, of Hempstead, who had initiated the drag race.
The men had been speeding in excess of 80 mph at the time of the fatal smash-up on Merrick Avenue, cops said.
Singer and Gerstein were pronounced dead at the scene. David Gerstein survived the crash but lost sight in his left eye and suffered paralysis in his left arm. He died six months ago.
The Gersteins, from West Palm Beach, Fla., had flown up to New York to be with their family for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Marci Singer’s husband, Burton, remarried, but has since died.
Berardi was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault.
But while awaiting sentencing after posting $50,000 bail, Berardi fled to San Marino. He was sentenced in absentia to five to 15 years in prison.
Portillo, convicted of two counts of criminally negligent homicide, received 1½ to 4 years and has been released.
Cops said authorities received information within the past two years that Berardi was living in San Marino. They had him placed on an Interpol watch list.
Choked with emotion, Jill Singer said there isn’t a day that goes by where she doesn’t think about her mom, whom she described as “an amazing woman” who loved sculpting and painting.
“My mother was my best friend,” she said.
“She was a giving and loving person to everybody, and she lived for her two children.”