Laura Glesby Photo
Prosecutor Laura DeLeo, defense attorney Hugh Keefe, and Agnese Izzo in court Friday.
Paul Bass Photo
The crash scene.
Tears flowed on both sides of Courtroom C Friday as a state judge sentenced Agnese Izzo to six months in prison for driving onto a sidewalk and killing a pedestrian.
Judge Melanie Cradle handed down the sentence, the maximum possible.
Police arrested Izzo for driving her car into 42-year-old pedestrian Melissa Tancredi on Jan. 17, 2017, on a sidewalk at York Street and South Frontage Road, an intersection where many crashes occur. The collision killed Tancredi. Izzo subsequently pleaded nolo contendere to four charges: negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, traveling unreasonably fast, following too closely, and failure to yield to a pedestrian.
Izzo’s family sat at one side of the courtroom, Tancredi’s on the other, as the state pressed for the tougher sentence and Izzo pled her case before the judge.
Izzo was driving home from her work at Yale-New Haven Hospital at 3 p.m. when she crashed into Tancredi. She had been in a left turn-only lane, yet she continued straight down the intersection and drove up onto the sidewalk. An investigation revealed that she had been driving up to 13 miles per hour above the speed limit, at one point reaching 38 miles per hour on a road with a speed limit of 25. Investigators determined that she had not been using her cell phone, and while Izzo had a history of substance abuse, police found no evidence that she was intoxicated at the time. She had taken the first dose of a prescribed antidepressant that day, the prosecutor said, which may have contributed to the crash.
The defense maintained that the crash was an accident.
“There are such things as actions where nobody is at fault,” Izzo’s defense attorney, Hugh Keefe, said to the judge.
He also said that driving above the speed limit at the York and South Frontage intersection is exceedingly common.
“I challenge anybody, if you go there right now, to find a car going 25 miles per hour,” he said. “No such thing.”
When Izzo spoke to the judge, she said that she had no recollection of the accident. She suggested that the collision might have been caused by a seizure.
She expressed remorse for the crash and sympathy for the victim’s family.
“The past two and a half years have caused me great trauma,” she said through tears, adding that the incident has taken a significant toll on her career, relationship, and mental health.
In the years since the accident, Izzo said, she has been in residential treatment for substance abuse three times. She has also been charged with multiple driving-related infractions after the incident, including a collision with a fire hydrant.
Enza Renaldi, Izzo’s mother, testified on her behalf, along with several other family members. She said her daughter has dedicated her life to helping others.
She also said that Izzo felt profound remorse.
“There have been several nights that I’ve held my daughter in my arms while she cried, saying she wished it was her who had died,” Renaldi said.
The prosecutor, Assistant State’s Attorney Laura DeLeo, argued that Izzo’s driving infractions since Tancredi’s death make it “hard to believe she was repentant.”
“I see a person who just doesn’t get it,” said DeLeo. “She should never in her life, if she was remorseful, have had another ticket in which she was distracted.” She asked for the maximum sentence of six months in prison, as well as the maximum fines for the other offenses.
Several of Tancredi’s family members and friends proceeded to testify about their loss. Larry Griffith, a relative, recalled that Tancredi “lit up the room with a big, big smile.”
Christopher Tancredi, the victim’s son, addressed Izzo directly. He said he hoped that she would be taken by the same “hole” that took his mother and that her family would know what it was like to grieve a loved one. The judge subsequently asked that future statements from the victim’s family and friends be addressed to the court rather than to the defendant.
Judge Cradle issued the maximum possible sentence of “a flat full 6 months” for the charge of negligent homicide. She cited the incident’s impact on the victim’s sons, saying, “Their sentence is a lifetime without their mother.”
“I think society needs to be protected from you,” the judge told Izzo.
In addition to the six months, Izzo must also pay fines, perform mandatory community service, and refrain from driving for at least 6 months, pending drug testing. She also must pay for the therapy of Tancredi’s two sons.