Drunk driver sentenced to 3-9 years in fatal Main St. hit-run
Killed woman, injured her son, 4, on last December
Christopher Tulumello looked every bit the clean-cut young man with a promising future as he stood Wednesday in Erie County Court dressed in a charcoal suit awaiting sentence.
Later in the day, he gave up his suit, crisp white shirt and blue-striped tie for a bright orange jail jumpsuit.
He had pleaded guilty in March to vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving in a hit-and-run accident that killed Amanda S. Knowlton, 23, and injured her young son the night of Dec. 3 on Main Street at LaSalle Avenue.
Among legal insiders in the packed courtroom, there was never any doubt that Tulumello, 21, of Amherst, would become an example of the risks of drinking and driving.
Despite his brief but emotional apology to Knowlton’s family, Judge Sheila A. DiTullio said he must suffer severe consequences. She sentenced him to three to nine years, with the likelihood that he will spend at least six years in state prison. That’s because parole officials look harshly on alcohol-related fatal accidents and usually double the minimum sentence before considering a supervised release.
Tulumello could have received a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Some of the Buffalo woman’s family said they wished he had received that sentence; they noted that her then-4-year-old son, Isaiah Ortiz, who was injured in the accident, watched as his mother died.
Attorneys Joel L. Daniels and Herbert Greenman sought mercy for their client during an impassioned statement, explaining that Tulumello never saw the mother and son crossing the street because another vehicle blocked his view as he approached the intersection, where he claimed the traffic light was green.
When Tulumello fled home from the accident, Daniels said, he called his father and asked, “ ‘Dad, what should I do?’ His father said, ‘You go back there.’ ”
Tulumello, Daniels said, could have been told to make himself scarce for several days or “lawyer up,” but that was not the case.
“I hit her. I panicked,” Tulumello told police, Daniels said in quoting him to make a case that Tulumello ended up doing the right thing and that his family would not stand for anything less than him taking responsibility.
When Daniels finished, Tulumello spoke on his own behalf in a quavering voice:
“I just want to say to the Knowlton family I’m sorry for all the pain I caused you. It means so much some or all of you have forgiven me,” Tulumello said. He also apologized to his parents, Cheryl and Robert, and other family members in the courtroom.
Earlier, Knowlton’s stepfather, Terry VanVolkenburg, had spoken, recalling how he had been “Amanda’s Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and friend” over the years and now her two sons are without a mother, with only a tombstone that will soon be placed at her grave to remember her by.
“I know the Tulumello family is suffering,” VanVolkenburg added, addressing the judge. “There’s no hatred in my heart for him or his family. I just want you to remember he’s a young man.”
DiTullio acknowledged the many letters she had received and read from Knowlton’s friends and family, and from those who sent letters on Tulumello’s behalf.
The judge explained why she felt compelled to impose a strong sentence.
Recalling how he could have killed himself when he crashed into a tree while driving while impaired, DiTullio said the criminal justice system gave him a break that time.
“You dropped out of a six-week program at Sisters Hospital. You felt it was all drug addicts in it and you didn’t fit in,” the judge said of his failure to participate in the program that would have helped him regain a valid driver’s license.
She then noted that at the time of the fatal crash, he was speeding perhaps as fast as 50 mph through the intersection and never stopped.
“You called your father, and I give you some credit, but I wish you’d called the police. You’re 21; you’re not 16,” DiTullio said.
When he confessed to police, he initially told them he had consumed one beer, but later in the presentencing report he admitted he drank eight or nine beers, the judge said.
“You jumped into that pickup and killed a young woman, a mother of two, and injured her 4-year-old son . . .” DiTullio said, explaining that the court could not turn its back on the facts. “The court must protect the public.”
Now incarcerated at the Erie County Holding Center, Tulumello will be shipped to the state prison system, a holding center official said Wednesday.
Tulumello’s relatives refused to speak, as they filed out of the courtroom, some weeping.
But a few members of Knowlton’s family, several of them in tears, said Tulumello deserved a lengthier sentence, though they added that they are working on forgiving him.
“I believe he should have gotten 10 to 15 years, but either way he will still suffer,” said Janyne Betz, one of Knowlton’s sisters. “We have to forgive him like God forgives us.”
lmichel@buffnews.com and mgryta@buffnews.com
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