The man accused of running over and killing 4-year-old Ariel Russo on the Upper West Side in 2013 has agreed to take a plea deal in the case.
As part of the plea deal, Franklin Reyes will spend three to nine years in prison.
Reyes accepted the plea deal in connection with Russo's death, as well as two other cases.
In one of the other cases, he was accused of dragging a police officer with a vehicle. In the other, he was accused of trying to escape from police.
At one point Thursday, it appeared as if the judge was going to pull the offer.
While Reyes was initially accepting the deal, the judge asked him about the incident where he was accused of dragging an officer.
Reyes claimed he didn't do it, and insisted that the officers beat him up while allegedly telling him they were going to give him some of the pain he has caused.
The judge reacted by telling Reyes he was pulling the offer and then told officers to take him out of the courtroom.
Of all the cases, the death of Ariel Russo was the most notorious. Reyes was 17, driving his parents' SUV without their permission. When police tried to stop him, he sped off, crashing on Amsterdam Avenue and 97th Street, crushing the girl. Her grandmother was seriously injured.
"We're never going to be the same again," said Sofia Russo, Ariel's mother. "And there's been no remorse, no apologies."
"They're crying and wailing and we're composed, and our child is gone," said Alan Russo, Ariel's father.
Reyes' mother, Lilia, was escorted out of the courtroom like she's been in the past. She continued to say Ariel's death was an accident and that the other cases are trumped-up charges, so her son had to plead guilty.
"What else can he do? What else can he do? He had no choices," Lilia Reyes said. "If we go to trial, who knows how many more years he's going to face."
If he was convicted at trial, he could have spent more than 20 years locked up.
Reyes will stand trial in another case, where he and his father are accused of burglary.