YOUNGSTOWN Driver awaits sentencing

An assistant prosecutor said the victim is partially paralyzed from his injuries.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A January sentencing date is set for a Richland Avenue man who ran over a 16-year-old South Side boy with a van in September.
Anthony Direnzo, 34, faces up to 30 months in prison for charges of vehicular assault and leaving the scene of an accident, to which he pleaded guilty this week in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Judge James C. Evans ordered that a background check be done on Direnzo before the sentencing, which will be Jan. 24.
What's alleged
Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejko said James Hayes of Samuel Avenue was walking in the left lane of Indianola Avenue, near Homestead Street, when he was struck around 6 p.m. Sept. 12. The van fled the scene, but police later found it abandoned near Roy and Elberen streets, where a witness said he saw Direnzo walk from the van to a waiting car.
Direnzo was found at the Richland Avenue address, the home of his mother, who had picked him up from the van around 8 p.m.
Macejko said the victim is partially paralyzed from his injuries.
Defense attorney Joseph Rafidi said Direnzo opted to plead guilty because he wanted to put the matter behind him and spare the victim's family a trial.
"He knows he made a terrible mistake, and he wanted to own up to it," Rafidi said.
Witnesses told police the boy was hit by a white GMC van that sped from Homestead onto Indianola Avenue. The driver slowed briefly after hitting the teen and fled.
An ambulance driver told police his vehicle had nearly been hit by a white van driven by an angry driver, frightening a patient, around 4:15 p.m. at Glenwood and Indianola avenues, and he gave officers a license plate number. When officers went to the home of the vehicle owner, the woman said it was likely taken by her grandson, who is Direnzo.
Rafidi said the van's brakes failed, which is what caused the accident.
"His biggest mistake was running," Rafidi said.