An Indian citizen extradited in September 2025 to face manslaughter charges for a 20-year-old high-speed-crash on Old Country Road in Hicksville that killed a 44-year-old man pleaded guilty.
On April 11, 2005, at approximately 6:00 a.m., Ganesh Shenoy drove through a steady red light at the intersection of Levittown Parkway and Old Country Road in Hicksville at a high rate of speed and crashed into a Cadillac driven by 44-year-old Philip Mastropolo, who was heading to work. It is estimated that Shenoy was driving twice the speed limit at the time of the crash.
The force of the crash demolished the victim’s vehicle and sent the car skidding 65 feet into the front of a Freightliner box truck that was stopped at the red light on the other side of the intersection. Mastropolo was pronounced dead at the scene.
The defendant was taken to an area hospital for treatment, but refused medical attention and left the hospital.
Fourteen days after the crash on April 25, 2005, despite having his New York State driver’s license and Indian passport seized by police, Shenoy boarded a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport headed to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India. He never returned to the United States.
An indictment was returned on August 8, 2005, charging the defendant with second-degree manslaughter and both an arrest warrant and an Interpol Red Notice were subsequently issued.
Shenoy was taken into custody by members of the United States Marshals Service and extradited back to the United States on September 25, 2025. It was the first extradition of a person from India to the United States since 2017.
Ganesh Shenoy, 54, pleaded guilty on February 6 before Judge Helene Gugerty to Manslaughter in the Second Degree (a Class C felony). He is due back in court on March 6, 2026, and is expected to be sentenced to 3-1/3 to 10 years in prison. NCDA recommended a sentence of four to 12 years in prison.
“For the last 20 years, Ganesh Shenoy was a free man in India, while Philip Mastropolo’s wife and children have been forced to live with a hole in their lives that he caused when he struck and killed Philip,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “This defendant ran from responsibility. He fled the country so that he did not have to face his crime and the tragedy left in the wake of his reckless actions. But he could not run forever, and today, Philip’s children were finally able to look their father’s killer in the eye and watch him face accountability.”