Two Brooklyn men who staged rear-end collisions on New York City highways for insurance money, in a scheme that grew out of dashcam footage shared widely online, are heading to prison, Governor Kathy Hochul and Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on August 27. Jaime Huiracocha, 53, was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in state prison, and Victor Murillo, 34, received a 2-year sentence, closing out a case built almost entirely on the same kind of dashcam footage that made the scheme go viral in the first place.
Key Points
- Huiracocha and Murillo orchestrated at least three staged collisions on the Belt Parkway and Nassau Expressway between August and October 2024, according to the Queens District Attorney’s official sentencing announcement.
- Huiracocha pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in the third degree and conspiracy in the fifth degree; Murillo pleaded guilty to staging a motor vehicle accident in the second degree, insurance fraud in the fourth degree, and conspiracy in the fifth degree.
- Two more defendants, Maikel Martinez and Ivon Matus-Martinez, have already pleaded guilty in the same scheme and are awaiting sentencing.
- Queens Supreme Court Justice Jerry Iannece handed down both sentences.
According to the DA’s account of the scheme, Huiracocha recruited people willing to put their cars, and their bodies, on the line for cash, then directed the operation from a trailing vehicle. Murillo did the actual driving, deliberately braking or reversing into unsuspecting drivers so the crash would look like an ordinary accident. Passengers riding along would cover the rear window with a tarp, let Murillo slip out and disappear into a getaway car, then fake injuries for the responding officers and insurance adjusters.
The DA’s office laid out three specific incidents: an August 24, 2024 crash on the Belt Parkway near Erskine Street, where a silver Honda Civic braked in front of a Long Island woman’s car and forced her to rear-end it; an October 3, 2024 incident on the Nassau Expressway near Cross Bay Boulevard involving a Nissan Xterra that cut off a tractor-trailer; and an October 16, 2024 crash in Rosedale where a Honda Civic reversed directly into a Queens woman’s vehicle. Dashcam video from at least two of those crashes recorded the getaway car, a red Kia, following the victims beforehand, footage that ultimately helped investigators build the case.
“Today we’re sending a message to would-be-fraudsters everywhere: If you stage crashes, try to defraud or endanger New Yorkers, you will be held accountable,” Governor Hochul said in the joint announcement. DA Katz added that “staged auto collisions not only terrify targeted drivers, they put other motorists at risk and lead to increased insurance costs for all New Yorkers.”…