Community Corner

Attorney: Additional Charges Unlikely in Eric Licursi Traffic Death

Defendant Melissa Woods is currently only charged with DWI.

The attorney for a Massapequa woman charged with DWI in an incident related to the death of a Syosset man said Tuesday that she is unlikely to face any additional charges.

Melissa Woods, 33, appeared in Suffolk County District Court in Central Islip Tuesday morning. Her lawyer, Robert J. Brunetti, was granted an adjournment until April 15, at which time he will request discovery for any evidence related to the district attorney's investigation.

However, he said after the hearing that from the evidence he is familiar with so far, 24-year-old Eric Licursi was dead well before Woods' car was involved in the incident. 

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Licursi, a 2003 graduate of Syosset High School, crashed his 1996 Honda in Cold Spring Harbor in the early morning of Feb. 28. A Good Samaritan in a 2003 Lincoln Navigator stopped to offer assistance to Licursi, who was partially ejected from the vehicle. Woods, driving her 2007 Toyota Solara, struck the overturned Honda and then the Navigator. Licursi was pronounced dead at the scene, but it initially was unclear what condition he was in at the time Woods' car became involved in the accident.

Brunetti, who just joined the case as co-counsel with Burton George, said that Licursi's car hit a large tree and that from the recollections of two eyewitnesses, Licursi was already dead.

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"She hit his car at such a low rate of speed that her airbags didn't even deploy," Brunetti said, later referring to the crash as "not survivable." 

The D.A.'s office has not responded to a Monday Syosset Patch request for an update on its investigation. 


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