Jury deliberating in 2023 Granite Street fatal crash trial

MANCHESTER, NH – A fatal crash at the intersection of Granite Street and the I-293 Interstate off-ramp happened because the driver, Ali Abreu, was enraged after an argument with her fiancé, who died in the collision, according to prosecutors, because the 2012 Acura she bought weeks earlier from a “shady dealership” malfunctioned, as the defense contends.

Attorneys made their closing arguments Friday afternoon in the trial of Abreu, 37, of Derry, charged with manslaughter, negligent homicide and two counts of reckless conduct for endangering Michael Shattuck, 32, of Hampton, and the other driver, Barbara Louise Letvinchuck, 64.

The accident happened about 5 p.m., at the height or rush hour, on March 23, 2023, killing Shattuck.

Shattuck died at the scene, even though bystanders pulled him from the car and performed CPR on him.

Abreu was pinned in the wreckage, which had to be cut away to remove her.  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.

Hillsborough County Assistant Attorney Francis J. Coffey, in his 10-minute 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. The video recorded Abreu’s car speeding through the intersection and crashing into a 2019 BMW operated by Letvinchuck.   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.

Judge Amy Messer presided at the trial in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District.  Friday afternoon, she instructed the jurors on the law after the attorneys completed their closing arguments.  A jury of seven women and five men are now deliberating Abreu’s guilt or innocence.

Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Patrick Ives, in his closing argument, told the jurors that Abreu became enraged over an argument with Shattuck concerning her infidelity.  It involved texts and compromising photos of her, he said.

Shattuck had driven to Job Corps that afternoon to pick up Abreu.  He moved into the passenger seat as Abreu took over driving her car, a 2012 Acura she had purchased three weeks earlier from JD Byrider of Manchester.  The dealership closed weeks after the fatal crash.

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.  Abreu, she said, told her about the argument the two 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.

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.

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.  If she were “enraged,” as prosecutors maintained, someone would 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.

The defense called one witness, John Smith, a physician assistant who tended to Abreu while she was hospitalized.  He testified she underwent four separate surgeries for many injuries that included a shattered kneecap, broken bones in her feet and legs, and a laceration to her left kidney.  He said she was in pain and on opiates. While hospitalized, she was unable to walk.  She has since recovered.

Abreu is being tried on charges of negligent homicide, manslaughter and two counts of reckless conduct.

Coffey also told the jurors they will  hear the 911 call from a “distraught witness” who told the dispatcher that “someone just flew” by her on the southside off-ramp, almost hitting her.

Trilling, in her ten-minute opening statement on Wednesday, said police had “tunnel vision” when investigating the case.  Investigators never performed a complete vehicle autopsy – inspection of the lights, brakes, tires and steering systems —  on the mangled 2012 black Acura; never checked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website for any defects or complaints filed about the 2012 Acura; never reviewed the car’s history, or checked the car’s inspection history,    documents for which were in the car.

She said the Manchester Police Department’s accident reconstruction team, because of the extensive damage to the car, “did the bare minimum” when it came to inspecting it for any mechanical defects.

Abreu, she said, purchased the car from a JD Byrider branch in Manchester, which closed abruptly in the year after the accident.  Why, she asked, didn’t police look into why that was?

In court documents, the defense said there were numerous consumer complaints about JD Byrider concerning non-disclosed mechanical issues, resulting in difficulties with enforcing warranty policies purchased from the business.  Many of the complaints concerned vehicles bought there between 2022 and December 2023.

The defense, in court documents, also said the Attorney General’s Office confirmed its consumer division is investigating JD Byrider but said it is unclear what specifically is being investigated because the Attorney General’s Office has “repeatedly fought defense efforts to learn more information about this investigation, including by moving to quash a defense subpoena duces tecum specifically seeking this information.”

Trilling said Abreu only purchased the vehicle, which had 140,000 miles on it, on March 1, 2025, several weeks prior to the crash.

She said when investigators asked about 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.”

After the lawyers’ opening remarks, jurors were taking on a view of the intersection where the fatal crash happened.

The trial is expected to last five days.