Police: Teens drank in car before double-fatal crash

Just before Thursday's double-fatal car crash in Central Islip, five young people cruised around for hours while drinking alcoholic beverages in the car, Suffolk police said Friday.

Just before Thursday's double-fatal car crash in Central Islip, five young people cruised around for hours while drinking alcoholic beverages in the car, Suffolk police said Friday.

Investigators don't know where the group got the alcohol. Their cruising ended when an allegedly drunken Centereach teenager at the wheel lost control, careened into two pine trees, killed two of the passengers, and injured herself and two others, said Det. Sgt. William Rand, a supervisor of Suffolk's Bay Shore-based Third Squad detectives.

The driver, Taylor Nolte, 19, has been charged with driving while intoxicated, police said. She remains hospitalized at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, and she's unlikely to be arraigned before Monday, Rand said.

The surviving two passengers are also at Southside, one with internal injuries, another with a head injury, Rand said. Neither has been publicly identified by police.

Investigators were awaiting the results of blood taken from Nolte to determine how intoxicated she was, police said.

The deceased are Kenyen Gaskins, 23, of Central Islip, and Kelly Mallazzo, 18, of Hauppauge.

Just before the crash, Nolte was about to drop Gaskins off at his home, at about 4:45 a.m. Thursday, police said.

Police said they smelled alcohol on Nolte's breath, found remnants of an alcoholic beverage in the vehicle, and one of the survivors told investigators that the group was drinking inside.

A short time before the crash, Gaskins called his mother's fiance, Charles McCall.

According to McCall, who introduced himself Friday as Gaskins' stepfather, the two spoke for a few minutes, but Gaskins didn't say where he had been that night.

"Next thing I know, I get a call at work," said McCall, a jail maintenance worker. "Now we have to go through burying a guy at 23 years old."

McCall said the family continued to search for answers. Funeral services have not been scheduled.

A person at the door of Mallazzo's home declined to comment.

Jennifer Grabowski said she worked with Mallazzo at Arbors Nursing Home in Hauppauge and went to high school with Gaskins. She remembered Mallazzo for her kindness and good humor.

"She was just a really happy, funny girl," Grabowski said.

And she described Gaskins as a "shoulder" to lean on with any problems.

"He really was a good person," Grabowski said. "It's just sad."