NEW CITY – Rockland County Court Judge Sherri Eisenpress sentenced 18-year-old Joseph DeBellis of Airmont to six months in jail followed by five years of probation.
DeBellis pled guilty to all 17 counts of an indictment following an April 24, 2021 crash that claimed the life of a classmate and seriously injured the other three classmates in his vehicle when he drove drunk on Route 202 in the Village of Montebello at speeds of over 80 miles an hour and slammed into a utility pole.
The district attorney’s office offered him to plead guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide in return for a prison sentence of 1 1/3 to four years in state prison. He declined the offer and pled guilty to all 17 counts allowing the court to give him the lesser sentence over the objection of the DA.
DeBellis pled guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter, manslaughter, four counts of assault, vehicular assault, five counts of vehicular assault, two counts of driving while intoxicated, driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs and alcoho0l, and reckless driving.
“No parent should ever have to bury their own child. Drinking while driving is an egregious offense that is easily preventable,” said DA Thomas Walsh. “We must use tragic events like this as learning lessons for our teens, that your actions and decisions have real consequences.”
