Johnson Kokozian was taking his friends on a joyride in his brand new Mercedes-Benz AMG when he tried to overtake a car at Heckenberg, in southwest Sydney in 2023, crossing onto the wrong side of the road at double the 50km/h speed limit. He crashed head-on into a car carrying siblings Alina Kauffman, 24, and Ernesto Salazar, 15, who were pronounced dead at the scene.
But what made Kokozian's conduct particularly disturbing to the court was what happened next. He failed to stop and help the siblings, instead fleeing the scene and focusing on his destruction of the uninsured luxury car, proclaiming that flipping the car meant AU$300,000 was gone.
NSW District Court Judge David Arnott said Kokozian's conduct during and after the September 1 crash amounted to "an abandonment of moral responsibility", noting he had been more worried about the money he lost by crashing his brand new car than the wellbeing of the occupants of the other car.
Kokozian eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of failing to assist after a fatal impact, and was jailed for nine years with a minimum of six years and six months. Yet for Angelina Kauffman, the mother of the victims, the sentence fell far short of justice.
Kauffman exited the courthouse wearing a jumper bearing a photo of her children, and has continuously advocated for justice for them during the lengthy legal process. She said the fact Kokozian could be released on parole in three years was unjust, noting she had high hopes for a strong penalty after the proceedings were dragged out for so long but had been shocked by the driver's sentence.
She gathered more than 20,000 signatures on a petition requesting the NSW Parliament consider increasing the maximum penalties for serious road crimes. Her push for reform has become part of a broader conversation in NSW about whether existing penalties truly capture the gravity of road deaths.
However, the NSW Law Reform Commission's recent review offers limited support for her position. A Law Reform Commission review handed down in February 2025 found penalties for serious road crimes were appropriate and higher maximum penalties were unlikely to do more to deter offending. A new vehicular manslaughter offence should not be introduced because it was unnecessary and could cause confusion, the review determined.
The case has also ensnared those closest to Kokozian. His father Kagadour Hanna Kokozian, 63, pleaded guilty in 2025 to trying to conceal the deadly crash and hindering a police investigation, calling police to report his son's car as stolen after his son told him he had been driving. Kokozian's passenger in the Mercedes, Cruz Pamoana Davis-Tuka, received a 15-month intensive corrections order in 2025 for his role in concealing the crash and hindering police. Kokozian's girlfriend Tiana Savignano, 24, will contest the same charges in the NSW District Court this year after pleading not guilty.
Kauffman's determined advocacy reflects a tension at the heart of sentencing policy: whether longer terms deter serious offences or whether other factors shape criminal behaviour. For a grieving mother, the question is more personal than academic. She believes the system has failed her family, and she intends to keep fighting for change.