Fantasy Avenger Pays $100,000 for Long Island Car Accident

This is where fantasy meets reality. Ashley Romano was a computer gamer who went by the alias Da Darkside Angel. When her real-life lover crossed her, Romano utilized the skills she learned playing Assassin's Creed and literally drove her boyfriend off the road.

Jonathon Bari suffered severe injuries in the Long Island car accident, and this week a jury awarded him $100,000, reports the New York Post.

When Romano was only 18 she was introduced to Bari by a mutual friend. They hit it off, or at least Romano thought they did, and she was furious when she discovered that Bari wanted to see other women and only wanted to be friends, reports the Post.

While most heart-broken teens would have cried or listened to sad music on an endless loop, Da Darkside Angel sharpened her assassin's instincts she honed from playing fantasy games four hours a day for ten years and plotted her revenge.

In October 2004, Romano tailed Bari's car on Nicholls Road. She was apparently only inches away from his car forcing him to veer away and lose control. Bari's truck rolled over twice, and he was in a coma for 14 days. He also suffered facial fractures and knocked-out teeth, reports the Post.

In his civil suit against Romano, the jury awarded Bari $100,000 after finding that Romano drove recklessly. In its ruling, the jury said that Romano was 67 percent negligent, suggesting that Bari's bad driving may have contributed to the accident as well.

In New York, the negligence of the driver in causing a car accident is not an automatic bar to collecting damages. Instead, a New York City car lawyer will tell you that the state uses a comparative negligence standard where the victim's own negligence may reduce damages, but does not eliminate them.

Ashley Romano took her fantasy avenger role too seriously by causing a Long Island car accident that severely injured her love interest, Jonathon Bari. Both drivers were found to have driven negligently, but because Romano was determined to be more at fault, Bari collected $100,000.

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