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.”
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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 Correction 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.
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.
In finding aggravating circumstances for the sentencing, Coriden told DeMaio he had unleashed “ungodly damage” on the victims’ families.
“Not just to kill someone, but the pictures of the young lady — she will never be the same. And those injuries are far greater than anything you will experience,” Coriden said.
DeMaio was found guilty on all four charges April 5 by a 12-member Bartholomew Superior Court 2 jury. He has been incarcerated in the Bartholomew County Jail since the jury verdict.
He was accused in the death of Cummins engineer Ansul Sharma, 30, and severely injuring his wife, Samira Bhardwaj, who was 28 at the time of the accident. Samira Bhardwaj has been recuperating in India since last June, and had her most recent surgery in December.
In her argument at sentencing, Bartholomew County Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Kay said Bhardwaj will never fully recover from devastating injuries.
“She can’t walk across a room without assistance,” Kay said.
Because of extensive surgery, she may never be able to have children, Kay said.
The deputy prosecutor submitted nearly 100 pages of hospital billings showing the extensive care that has been required for Bhardwaj.
“We are disappointed with the sentence,” Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash said when asked for his reaction.
What happened
DeMaio was accused of striking the married couple with his red minivan as they were walking in the bike lane on Taylor Road near Four Seasons Retirement Center, and then driving the damaged vehicle away erratically, which was observed by a witness who notified police.
In his statement to police, DeMaio said he had left his Chandler Lane home, heading to work on the night shift at NTN Driveshaft. DeMaio told police he was feeling tired and had reached Taylor Road and U.S. 31 when he realized he had forgotten his NTN identification and turned to go back home, the probable-cause affidavit stated.
DeMaio told police he was driving north on Taylor Road approaching Lakeside Drive when he said “he closed his eyes and his vehicle must have drifted off the roadway,” the affidavit stated. DeMaio told police he “woke up when his vehicle collided with an object.”
In a videotaped statement to police, DeMaio told investigators he went back home because he was unsure about what to do after the collision and planned to walk the short distance back to where it happened after making calls. During the police interview, DeMaio could not explain why he didn’t stay at the scene or notify police, saying only he didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
Toxicology reports released in July 2017 showed DeMaio had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the accident, court records stated. The defendant had tested negative for alcohol intoxication after the accident, but failed a number of sobriety tests that provided probable cause to arrest him, police said during the investigation.
When first-responders arrived at the accident scene, police said they found Bhardwaj on the ground with faint breath and Sharma, who was later confirmed to have died. Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting, ruling that Sharma’s death was a homicide, said the engineer died from blunt force trauma to his head and upper cervical spine.
DeMaio’s attorneys attempted to convince Coriden to place the defendant in a treatment facility in Virginia that the family had learned about when the defendant’s younger brother was in recovery for a heroin addiction.
Defendant testimony
DeMaio’s mother, Christina Bedey, and his son, a Columbus high school student, testified about DeMaio’s character, his continuing effort to work longer hours to pay bills when his wife was ill and could not work, and his dedication to his family. At the time of the accident, DeMaio’s home was nearly in foreclosure and the family was struggling to keep up with bills, Bedey said.
Testifying in his own defense, DeMaio said he was working third shift at NTN Driveshaft, relying on medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to help keep him stay awake, getting as little as three hours of sleep a day.
DeMaio testified that he also used illegal, non-prescription drugs such as methamphetamine, starting in early 2017, to stay awake.
“Anywhere you work has it,” DeMaio said.
Initially snorting the drug, he then started placing it in capsules to ingest. Initially, he did not feel like he was out of control with the drug, and it helped him stay awake, DeMaio said. But then he began letting other things slide and could only focus on getting more of the drug, he said.
DeMaio told the judge he did not think he was an addict, something that later caused the prosecution to question why he was seeking to be placed in addiction treatment if he did not believe he was addicted.
Kay and investigator Columbus Police Department officer Ivan Schultz played several recorded telephone calls from the jail with DeMaio talking with family members, suggesting that causing a bad traffic accident could send people to jail for years and saying it was a first offense and he should receive probation.
Calling the investigation overblown and a witch hunt, in one of the calls DeMaio also asks whether he should pretend to be an addict in an attempt to get less jail time and instead go into treatment.
“If they want me to pretend I’m an addict, fine,” he said. “I don’t understand why I can’t go on home detention.”
“The jail calls show an extreme lack of empathy for the victims,” Kay said. “We don’t even hear any concern about what the Sharma and Bhardwaj families are going through. All we hear about is how it will affect him and his family,” she said of DeMaio.
“On that day, you made a decision and one person is dead and one person is horribly injured,” Kay said. “Those two people didn’t have any choice in the matter.”
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“I don’t think being in prison will make you a better person. But there is a price to be paid.”
— Judge Kathleen “Kitty”Tighe Coriden in sentencing Michael DeMaio for death, injuries to Columbus pedestrians
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