WHITE PLAINS – A Hastings-on-Hudson man was sentenced Thursday to one year in jail in connection with a 2019 hit-and-run accident that left a 91-year-old man dead.
Johnny David Machado, 28, pleaded guilty in November to leaving the scene of an accident without reporting and criminally negligent homicide, a felony. He was sentenced to one year in jail for each of the two counts, to be served concurrently, and will also pay a $2,000 fine on the first count.
Machado was driving on Route 9 in Dobbs Ferry on Friday night, September 20, 2019 when he struck a pedestrian, Rocco DePaolo, in a crosswalk. DePaolo, who was walking home after attending a high school football game, was taken to Westchester County Medical Center where he died of his injuries.
Machado was using his cellphone at the time of the accident. He did not stop after striking DePaolo and continued traveling south on Route 9.
“The light in our lives was extinguished forever and the joy of our family was taken away,” said Patricia DePaolo Munk, the victim’s daughter and one of several family members present at the sentencing. She noted that her parents had been married for 57 years at the time of her father’s death.
Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah said the case was “a terribly sad reminder of the consequences of distracted driving.”
The case was before State Supreme Court Justice Barry Warhit.
The incident was investigated by the Dobbs Ferry Police Department. Assistant District Attorney Nadine Nagler prosecuted the case.
