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New York: Matthew Ruckdaschel given light sentence by Judge Michael F. Pietruszka for killing two in DWI crash
by admin ·
Matthew Ruckdaschel
From Buffalo News
Family members of two motorists who were killed by a drunken, wrong-way driver reacted angrily and tearfully today when an Erie County judge refused their request to sentence the convicted driver to the maximum prison term.
Erie County Judge Michael F. Pietruszka sentenced Matthew Ruckdaschel to 3 1/2 to 10 1/2 years in prison.
As the first person to be convicted in Erie County of aggravated vehicular homicide, Ruckdaschel had faced a harsher sentence than earlier drunken drivers who left carnage in their wakes.
Ruckdaschel, 26, of Getzville, had faced a minimum prison sentence of one to three years and a maximum term of 8 to 25 years after pleading guilty in April to killing two men when he drove the wrong way on the inbound Kensington Expressway.
Last month, Anthony Thompson, the first person to be sentenced in Erie County for aggravated vehicular homicide, was sentenced by a different judge to five to 15 years in prison for his aggravated vehicular homicide conviction for a crash last year that killed one of his passengers, severely and permanently injured an off-duty Buffalo police officer, and injured
two others. …..MORE
Tags: Erie County, Erie County Judge Michael F. Pietruszka, Matthew Ruckdaschel, Orlando "Eric" Anderson, Thomas Johnson, Williamsville North High School
