Death of girl haunts victim in B'klyn mall drag race

Sixteen months after a Brooklyn drag racer slammed into his car, Lorris Caynes is haunted by the image of his then-girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter who was fatally injured in the wreck. "She was a sweet little girl," said Caynes, 32. "I loved her like she was my own."

Caynes was driving near the Gateway Center Mall in East New York on Dec. 5, 2004, when a Honda came blazing down the street about 80 mph and rammed his Ford Focus.

The Honda was speeding so fast along a stretch of Flatlands Ave. that Caynes said he didn't have time to react.

He remembers a flash of light at the head-on collision and his car's dashboard collapsing on top of him and his then-girlfriend, Cynthia Franklin.

It wasn't until he was already at Kings County Hospital that he learned how horribly Franklin's daughter, Amalya, had been hurt. She had serious head injuries and died 18 days later.

Caynes and Franklin both suffered broken legs. His daughter Anaya, then 8, escaped with bruises to her cheekbone.

The drag racer, Trevaughn Hall, 23, was charged with murder. But in December, he was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to up to nine years in prison.

"It didn't really matter how much time he got," Caynes said. "There's no amount of money or jail time that can bring her back."

"I remember when I was 16 or 17, I wanted to go fast," he said. "But as I got older, I realized the danger of it. People sometimes only see the danger after it's too late."