Hastings-on-Hudson resident Johnny David Machado, age 28, was sentenced to one year in jail for his role in the 2019 crash that left the lifelong Westchester resident dead.
Machado pleaded guilty last November to felony counts of leaving the scene of an accident without reporting and criminally negligent homicide for the fatal crash that took the life of Rocco DePaolo in Dobbs Ferry in September 2019.
Machado was also issued a $2,000 fine for leaving the scene of an accident.
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said that on Sept. 20 last year, Machado drove near Dobbs Ferry High School on Broadway, Route 9, in Dobbs Ferry when his car struck DePaolo in the crosswalk.
DePaolo had just attended a high school football game and was walking home around 9:25 p.m. on the day of the crash. At the time he struck him, Machado was using his cellphone, never stopping after hitting DePaolo and continuing southbound on Route 9.
At his sentencing, DePaolo’s daughter, Patricia DePaolo Munk, said that “the light in our lives was extinguished forever and the joy of our family was taken away,” while making note that her parents had been married for 57 years at the time her father was killed.
Rocah called the case “a terribly sad reminder of the consequences of distracted driving.”
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