WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — The medical transport driver convicted in connection with a deadly crash nearly three years ago will spend the next next seven years behind bars.

Dauda Elegushi, 28, pleaded no contest Monday for driving to endanger resulting in death and two counts of driving to endanger resulting in personal injury. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with seven to serve.

Elegushi was also charged with driving under the influence resulting in death and obstruction of justice, but prosecutors dropped those charges once he accepted their plea deal.

Prosecutors said Elegushi was was driving 77-year-old Lina Russo home from a dialysis appointment in November 2021 when he crashed into an oncoming car on Route 117 in Coventry.

Russo’s wheelchair wasn’t strapped in, which caused her to slam into the back of the driver’s seat, according to prosecutors. She later succumbed to her injuries at Rhode Island Hospital.

Prosecutors argued that Elegushi — who was driving for Assured Transportation — was drunk at the time of the crash and had an open beer in his cupholder. (Assured Transportation is a former subcontractor of MTM, which is the state’s non-emergency medical transportation provider.)

MTM was later fined $600,000 as a result of the deadly crash, which also injured the driver and a passenger in the vehicle that Elegushi hit.

Prosecutors noted that Elegushi was in the country illegally, having overstayed his visa, and did not have a valid driver’s license. He was also not an authorized driver under Assured Transportation’s contract with MTM.

An immigration judge ordered Elegushi be deported back to Nigeria earlier this year, but not before serving time for the deadly crash. Elegushi will be transferred back to federal custody and face deportation once again upon completing his sentence.

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