A Fairfax County jury has awarded $2.4 million to the parents of 15-year-old Leeyan Hanjia Yan. Yan was killed in June of 2022 when a BMW driven by Usman Shahid collided with another vehicle and then struck her and two other Oakton High School students walking near the school on Blake Lane.
Yan and 14-year-old Ada Gabriela Martinez Nolasco were killed in the Oakton crash. The third student survived but was injured.
Shahid was 18 at the time of the crash and only had a learner’s permit. He was speeding at 81 mph in a 35-mph zone and had three friends in the car with him.
Shahid was found guilty last year of two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of Yan and Nolasco. He was sentenced to four years in prison and is scheduled to be released in January 2027.
Yan’s family was unhappy with the four-year sentence, The Washington Post reported. The maximum penalty was 10 years for each count. “I see no reason for lenience,” her mother, Youngjean Lee, said at the sentencing. “Two years per one life lost feels like a slap in the face.”
In the civil suit, the jury awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to Yan’s parents. It also awarded $350,000 in punitive damages and $108,000 in medical and funeral costs.
Nolasco’s family also sued but reached a settlement in May for about $267,000 from the two drivers’ insurance companies, The Washington Post reported.
Feature image courtesy NBC4 Washington
