Abreu guilty of negligent homicide in death of fiancé

MANCHESTER, NH – Ailadi Abreu, the Derry woman accused of causing the death of her fiancé in a high-speed crash three years ago at a Granite Street intersection, was convicted Wednesday of negligent homicide.

A Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury found her not guilty of charges of manslaughter and reckless conduct.

The crash, which took place at the height of rush hour about 5 p.m. on March 23, 2024 at the intersection of the I-293 off-ramp  and Granite Street, took the life of Michael Shattuck, 32, of Hampton, Abreu’s passenger and fiance.

Shattuck had picked up Abreu, 37, from work at Job Corps.  She took the driver’s seat of the 2012 Acura she purchased three weeks earlier.  Prosecutors maintained she was enraged after arguing with Shattuck over her infidelity.  The defense contended the car, which she had purchased from a “shady dealership” and had 140,000 miles on it,” had malfunctioned and that police failed to perform an “autopsy” on the wrecked vehicle to determine any defects.

Assistant County Attorney Francis J. Coffey, in his opening statement, told jurors that Abreu sped down the I-293 off-ramp to Granite Street after arguing with Shattuck.  She passed a vehicle on the right, before continuing at 70 to 77 mph into the Granite Street intersection causing a “devastating” crash that “left Michael dead” and seriously injured her.

He played a video of the crash, recorded from a dash cam of a vehicle parked at the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, for the jurors.  The video recorded Abreu’s car speeding through the intersection and crashing head-on into a 2019 BMW operated by Barbara Louise Letvinchuck, then 64.

Once hit, Letvinchuck’s car spun counter-clockwise and struck a 2013 Chevrolet Suburban operated by Austynn Trombley, 27.  Three children were in Trombley’s vehicle.

Abreu was pinned in the wreckage.  Rescuers had to cut away the crushed parts of the vehicle to  and remove her from it.   She suffered serious injuries including broken bones in her feet, knee, hip and shoulder. She was transported to the Elliot Hospital where she underwent several surgeries.

Prosecutors relied heavily on video footage of the crash and the testimony of Shattuck’s sister, Mariah Shattuck, who said she spoke with Abreu at the hospital, in proving their case.  Abreu, Mariah Shattuck said, told her about the argument she and Michael had just before the collision.

Defense attorney Heather Erskine, in her closing statement, maintained investigators decided Abreu was guilty based on the video and without conducting a full examination of the car, including its brakes, the steering mechanism, lighting, throttle or other parts of the car.  What happened, she said, was a horrible, tragic accident but not a crime.

She told the jurors they should question why prosecutors never called the lead investigator to the stand or a mechanic to testify about the condition of the car.

Assistant County Attorney Patrick Ives countered that what lawyers say in their opening and closing statements is not evidence.  He told the jurors that there was no evidence presented that the car had a mechanical defect.

The defense contended that was because police had a “rush to judgement,” in deciding to charge Abreu and chose not to take a closer look at the car, its history of inspections or JD Byrider Manchester, the dealership where Abreu bought the car. The business closed weeks after the fatal accident.

Erskine said no one testified to seeing Abreu driving erratically on I-293.  “She drove unremarkably,” down the highway and didn’t “hurdle” down the off-ramp, she said.  If Abreu was “enraged,”  prosecutors maintained, someone would have witnessed that.  There was no such testimony, she said.

Abreu has no memory of what happened, Erskine said, but the video – which recorded the five seconds it took for the car to go down the off-ramp and collide with the BMW – clearly shows the vehicle turning to one side, an apparent attempt to avoid a collision.

Erskine also told the jury that Mariah Shattuck, Shattuck’s sister, spoke with Abreu at the Elliot Hospital, a day after she had undergone surgery and while she still was under the effects of anesthesia and opiates.

Defense attorney Alayna Trilling said when investigators asked Abreu whether she had been fighting with Shattuck and deliberately crashed the car, Abreu began crying and sobbing, and said, “No.  Michael was the love of her life.”