A Columbus man found guilty of the hit-and-run death of a Cummins engineer and causing severe injuries to his wife has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Michael DeMaio, 37, of 2023 Chandler Lane, wiped away tears at times during his sentencing hearing Thursday afternoon before Judge Kathleen “Kitty” Tighe Coriden.
The judge gave DeMaio a stern lecture after announcing his sentencing. Coriden said that if DeMaio does not comply with all components of the sentence, she would not hesitate to send him back to prison.
“I don’t think being in prison will make you a better person,” Coriden told DeMaio at the sentencing. “But there is a price to be paid.”
DeMaio was sentenced to eight years in prison on two of the counts, leaving the scene of an accident causing a death and leaving the scene of an accident while causing serious injury, court records state. Coriden ruled that DeMaio would be required to serve the four years on one of the counts and be released to Community Corrections on the second for the four-year balance of the sentence.
With good-time credit observed in Indiana, if DeMaio does not violate terms of his sentence, he would serve 75 percent of the jail sentence, which is three years in the Indiana Department of Corrections before being released to Community Corrections on probation.
DeMaio was sentenced to six years in prison for causing a death when operating a motor vehicle with a controlled substance in his system, to be served concurrently with the other sentence imposed, and one and a half years in prison on causing serious bodily injury when operating a motor vehicle with a controlled substance in his system, also to be served concurrently.
Two of the counts are Level 3 felonies, one is a Level 4 felony and one is a Level 6 felony.
Penalties on the felonies range up to 16 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the most serious Level 3 offenses, and a low of six months in prison and a $10,000 fine for the Level 6 offense, the least serious among felonies in Indiana.
Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash said, “we are disappointed with the sentence,” when asked for reaction.
DeMaio was also ordered to pay just over $87,000 in restitution to families of the victims, representing a portion of the medical bills and other expenses incurred from the fatal accident, which happened at 7:15 p.m. March 26, 2017.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
