FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Stephanie A. Magri was driving a silver Honda Accord when she crashed with a white Tesla Model 3 that then struck Sarah Castro in 2023 in Broward County, according to deputies.
A video shows Castro, a grandmother, standing behind her wheelchair when the impact catapulted her through the air and into a parked blue Ford Mustang in Lauderdale Lakes, according to deputies.
Matthew Karim, a defense attorney, said Magri, 49, who didn’t have a valid driver’s license, left the scene of the crash — not realizing Castro had been injured.
“She had no idea,” Karim said on Thursday, the fourth day of Magri’s jury trial in Broward.
Magri, who was born in New York and lived in Broward, had four prior convictions for driving on a suspended license in 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2022, and she fled after the crash on Jan. 30, 2023, within the 3300 block of North State Road Seven, according to prosecutors.
“Magri fled the scene on foot without identifying herself or rendering aid to any of the parties involved ... denied any possession or involvement ... stated that she was with her mother,” Chandler Greetham, a Broward Sheriff’s Office detective, wrote on April 12, 2023, according to an arrest warrant.
Fire rescue personnel took Castro to the Broward Health Medical Center, where she died after suffering a traumatic brain injury and a spinal fracture, records show.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Magri on July 18, 2023, at Flanagan’s Restaurant, at 2600 Davie Boulevard, in Fort Lauderdale, records show.
Broward prosecutors filed the felony case against Magri on July 20, 2023, according to court records. Broward County Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel has been presiding over the case.
On Aug. 8, 2023, Magri pleaded not guilty to three charges: Leaving the scene of a crash with death, a first-degree felony; failure to remain at the scene of an accident, a third-degree felony; and driving while license revoked, a third-degree felony.
“This woman has not apologized for what she has done and has shown no remorse or asked for forgiveness. I feel she has shown no empathy and does not feel bad for what she has done. I am struggling to understand how to go easy on a repeat offender who has no respect for the law. She needs much more than house arrest ... She needs to spend 25 years in prison,” Castro’s son, Luis Rodriguez, wrote in a 2024 letter to Siegel after he allowed house arrest.
Magri was set to appear in court for a hearing at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.
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