Johnson Kokozian steered onto the wrong side of the road as he attempted to overtake a Volkswagen and smashed into Alina Kauffman and her brother Ernesto Salazar, killing them both
A driver who killed a brother and sister in a horror head-on collision filmed himself eating KFC just hours after the crash.
Johnson Kokozian steered onto the wrong side of the road and smashed his luxury Mercedes SUV into Alina Kauffman, 24, and her brother Ernesto Salazar, 15, when they were arriving home in her Toyota Echo. She had just picked up her brother following his part-time job at a convenience store. Kokozian fled the scene and later filmed himself eating KFC.
“Mark my words, this is the last KFC I’ll be eating for another 20 years,” he said in a Snapchat post. The sibling’s mum Angelina Kauffman said they did not deserve to die when she attended Campbelltown Court House on Wednesday as Kokozian pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of failing to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing death.
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Several charges, including two counts of manslaughter and one count of negligent driving over the September 1, 2023, crash in south-west Sydney, Australia. Ms Kaufman said outside court: “I don’t know how these people can sleep at night.
“I pray the courts give my kids the justice they deserve, because they didn’t deserve to die.” Through tears she described her two-year quest for justice as “hell,” reports news.com.au.
“I’m not living, I’m just surviving,” she said. Kokozian has been held in custody following his arrest over the crash.
His guilty pleas came less than a week out from the second anniversary of the crash. A statement of agreed facts tendered at court following the plea revealed how he had been driving erratically in the moments leading up to the crash and how he fled and lied to officers about who had been behind the wheel.
At the time of the deadly crash, Kokozian’s license had been suspended for five months. He has been driving with two friends, including Cruz Davis-Tuka, who on Wednesday pleaded guilty to lying to police.
Court documents revealed the moments leading up to the crash, with Kokozian following a white Volkswagen closely down Sadleir Avenue. When he came to the crest of a hill, he swerved onto the wrong side of the road to overtake the vehicle and smashed into Ms Kauffman’s car.
A witness later saw three men climb out from the vehicle with two approaching the Toyota Echo. They then asked a bystander to take them to hospital.
As they were taken to hospital, Kokozian was heard speaking during a phone call, saying “I crashed the car” and “what do you mean there is no f****** insurance on it?” During the drive, he told someone on Instagram “I f** my car…Flipped the new amg.” He added: “I (sic) getting locked up for long.”
Police were later shown videos from Kokozian’s Snapchat that showed him holding up a box of KFC he was eating. In another clip he claimed: “I didn’t even do nothing, my car got stolen.”
He will return to court next month and will be sentenced at a later date. Davis-Tuka will return to court for sentencing next month.
Kokozian’s partner Tiana Savignano pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing a serious indictable offence and hindering an investigation into a serious indictable offence. She will challenge the charges at a later date.