Driver gets new sentence for crash

A flawed state law brought the city man back to court for resentencing.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city man who was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison in February for vehicular assault and leaving the scene of an accident got the exact same maximum prison term in a resentencing hearing.
David Caruso, 26, who gave addresses on both Craiger and Lenox avenues at the time of his original sentencing by Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, was back before Judge Krichbaum on Thursday.
The judge explained that the Ohio Legislature passed a law requiring judges to make certain findings when handing down maximum sentences, and he followed that law in his original sentencing of Caruso to maximum terms of 11/2 years for vehicular assault and one year for leaving the scene of an accident.
It was a law which Judge Krichbaum said he believed was unconstitutional but was required to follow at the time. The Ohio Supreme Court has since ruled part of the law unconstitutional and the sentencing court no longer has to elaborate on its reasons for imposing maximum sentences.
Defendants who were sentenced under the statute now have to be resentenced, Krichbaum said, calling the process "a tremendous waste of governmental resources."
What took place
Caruso pleaded guilty in December 2005 to both charges in a two-vehicle collision at Powers Way and Windsor Avenue on Aug. 29, 2005.
Elizabeth Berry of Youngstown, who was seriously injured in the crash, was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection, got the green light to make a left turn and proceeded into the intersection, where her car was struck broadside by Caruso's Blazer SUV, Judge Krichbaum said.
Caruso had been speeding and weaving in and out of traffic moments before the crash, the judge said.
Caruso and a passenger in his vehicle fled the scene on foot although Caruso came back a short time later. He fled the scene again when friends told him they thought Berry had been killed, Judge Krichbaum said.
Caruso's attorney, Douglas King, asked the court to show leniency for Caruso, who has already served 325 days behind bars in the case.
King suggested that Caruso be given probation rather than jail time, or that the court not impose the same maximum sentences or at least not make them consecutive.
Judge Krichbaum, noting that Caruso was on parole for aggravated robbery at the time of the accident and had a list of prior criminal offenses, said it would be dereliction of duty to let Caruso go.
"The parole board took a chance on you. I don't think I should take a chance on you," he told Caruso before imposing the same two maximum sentences.
The 325 days he's been incarcerated will be deducted from the new sentences, as required by law, Judge Krichbaum said.
gwin@vindy.com