Judge says man was 'heartless' in DWI crash that killed woman
J
Joseph Perez, in Judge Camacho's
courtroom at First District Court in Central Islip Thursday morning on
June. 25, 2015, where he was sentenced for the fatal DWI crash that
claimed the life of Donna Sartori. Photo Credit:
James Carbone
Moments before imposing the maximum sentence Thursday on a Riverhead man for killing a woman while driving drunk, a Suffolk judge told him he was of remarkably poor character.
Joseph Perez, 31, was found guilty last month of
aggravated vehicular homicide, second-degree manslaughter and
second-degree vehicular manslaughter in the death of Donna Sartori, who
was delivering newspapers with her Shih Tzu, Bam Bam, in the early hours
of Jan. 5, 2014.
Perez had a blood-alcohol content of .23 percent
-- almost three times the legal standard of .08 percent for driving
while intoxicated -- when he plowed into Sartori's car, knocking her out
of her seat 40 feet down the road. Bam Bam was never found.
"I have nothing to say, sir," Perez said when state Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho gave him a chance to explain himself.
"OK, well, I do," Camacho replied.
He said Perez' character was apparent even before
the crash, when after a night of drinking he peeled out of a Hampton
Bays nightclub's parking lot although friends offered to drive for him
after he got into a minor fender bender. Then, less than two miles away,
after he killed Sartori, 56, of Middle Island. Perez sat on a bench
near her body and waited for police and emergency workers to come.
"I can't imagine killing someone, and not even
holding their hand during their last moments on this earth," Camacho
told an impassive Perez. "You're a cold, heartless, uncaring,
self-centered individual."
Camacho sentenced Perez to 12 1/2 to 25 years in prison.
Earlier, Sartori's husband, Anthony Guggino, told Perez, "Donna was my whole life. You took everything away from us."
That includes even the dog, he said.
"We had no children," Guggino said. "We had a dog. We lost our dog in this accident."
Sartori's sister, Debra Fox of Saratoga Springs, said her death devastated her entire family.
"Not only did my sister died, but a part of each
person in my family died right along with her -- especially my parents,"
Fox said. "They're both so grief-stricken that they couldn't come
anywhere near this courtroom during the trial because they could not
bear to look at the man that is responsible for their daughter's
senseless death."
Assistant District Attorney Carl Borelli said the crash never had to happen.
"Everything about this was avoidable," he said. "This was not an accident. He made choice after choice after choice."
Defense attorney George Duncan of Central Islip
emotionally apologized to Sartori's family and asked Camacho not to
punish his client for exercising his right to a trial.