DUI/Involuntary Manslaughter Question

What is the name of your state? Incident happened in New York to my cousin.

My cousin was high on something with his friend a while back (not sure what it was). They were going around 90mph on a curvy road when they hit the guard rail and crashed. My cousin somehow got thrown into the trunk and his friend flew out of the car and died. When they went to court, my cousin's statement was that he doesn't know if he was the driver or the passenger(which is where the whole problem started). Forensic experts(or w/e the people that recreate the accident are called) decided that he had to be driving. He was sentenced to 2.5-10 years for involuntary manslaughter. I myself know very little about law but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to get his sentenced lessened(his 2.5-10 years was the MAX sentence that the judge could give). I don't believe he had any prior convictions but I am pretty sure that he was in jail a few times for different things as well as having speeding tickets.
What is the best approach to the situation?

Let it go**************.Unless you can afford an expensive attorney and experts to dispute the evidence. How long ago was this? Was there an appeal?

He didn't appeal because the lawyer he had was worthless and didn't help at all. If he's not able to get out, does anyone know NY state law on parole and when he'd be eligible on a 2.5 year sentence?

That is horrible. Isn't there a way that the police can tell if he was driving or the deceased person was driving? I would think that they could tell by the position of the body at the scene of the accident. And how in the world did your cousin end up in the TRUNK? Do you think he might have gotten out of the car and gotten into the trunk? That is very strange.
PITR

PainInTheRear said:

That is horrible. Isn't there a way that the police can tell if he was driving or the deceased person was driving? I would think that they could tell by the position of the body at the scene of the accident.

Click to expand...

It sounds like they did make that determination (see the reference to "forensic experts" in the original post). If the car is suitably mangled, the trunk is an easy entry from the rear seat.