Crime & Safety

DA: Kinalis Filled Scripts For 480 Pain Pills in Days Before Fatal Crash

Alleged drugged driver was under the influence of three prescription drugs at the time of crash that killed 5-year-old West Islip boy, officials say.

Steven Kinalis, the man now with aggravated vehicular homicide related to the death of West Islip 5-year-old John Gaffney, filled prescriptions for nearly 500 painkillers in the days before last month's fatal crash.

"One bottle, filled the day before the crash, was for 360 Oxycodone pills and 107 pills were missing; and the second bottle, for 120 pills, filled two days before the crash, was completely empty," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said Monday, a day before Kinalis, 31, will be arraigned on upgraded felony charges. 

A search of Kinalis' Ronkonkoma home also turned up quantities of Xanax (an anti-anxiety medication) and Adderall (a stimulant used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), as well as empty Soma (a muscle relaxer) and Oxycontin prescription bottles, Spota said, adding that the medications were prescribed by three different doctors and filled at five different pharmacies on Long Island.

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"The aftermath of this defendant's doctor shopping is the death of this 5-year-old boy," said Spota, who choked up during a press conference Monday morning while speaking of the Gaffney family's annual trip out east to buy a Christmas tree on Dec. 10. "This is what is at stake."

A single doctor wrote Kinalis five prescriptions in one day--including the two for 30 mg tablets of Oxycodone. That doctor, whom Spota did not name, is under investigation by a special grand jury convened to investigate prescription drug abuse on Long Island. 

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A toxicology report found that Kinalis was driving under the influence of Oxycodone, Xanax and Soma when he rear-ended a pickup truck driven by Kevin Gaffney, Spota said. 

The impact of the crash sent the pickup truck off Sunrise Highway into a tree. John Gaffney, a kindergartner at was strapped into his booster seat in the back seat of the truck. He died from head and neck injuries a day later.

"Our investigation has established that Kinalis was speeding and driving recklessly; cutting off motorists, making unsafe lane changes and driving so fast a witness moments before the crash said her car literally shook as Kinalis sped by," Spota said.

"They got into that car, they were using drugs very, very clearly and they just didn't care," Spota added, also to a Medford woman charged with vehicular manslaughter related to a fatal New Year's Eve crash.

Kinalis has been in jail since the crash. Aggravated vehicular homicide, a class B felony that state lawmakers put on the books following the drunk driving crash that killed 7-year-old Katie Flynn on the Meadowbrook Parkway in 2005, is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

Kinalis is also charged with felony counts of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, as well as misdemeanor charges of driving while under the influence of drugs and reckless driving.

Kinalis will be arraigned Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead before Judge James Hudson.

More than 200 people on a "Justice for John Gaffney" Facebook page have indicated that they would attend the arraignment. 


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