Angelo Rodriguez, who ran down two young people on a Bloomfield street last year, then drove off, yesterday was given a decade in prison and a minute to face two families still reeling from the night his car plowed into them on a sidewalk.
Mr. Rodriguez, 42, of Lawrenceville, was drunk and on drugs the night of Jan. 27, 2007, when he struck and killed Adrienne Keil, 17, five blocks from her Bloomfield home. Her companion, Sheldon Hawkins, 23, lost his left leg as a result of the incident.
In the course of the sentencing, one witness likened Mr. Rodriguez to a snake and invoked philosopher Karl Popper. Judge Jeffrey Manning, handing down two consecutive sentences, summoned the words of Thomas Aquinas.
Mr. Rodriguez, who spent much of his life on drugs and alcohol, summoned words of apology and shame.
"I understand how you feel about me and pray some day you can forgive me," Mr. Rodriguez told the families.
They might. But yesterday wasn't the day.
Instead, Adrienne's family spoke of discarding her SAT preparation materials, giving away her clothes, returning her cross-country uniform and walking up the steps of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bloomfield for a funeral Mass.
Her mother, Connie Keil, said she had always expected to walk those steps to her daughter's wedding.
"We will never attend that wedding or even see her in her prom dress or graduation robes," said her aunt, Diane Shelby.
Mr. Ferris spoke of being present the night Adrienne was born and holding her in his arms.
"I said, 'Welcome Adrienne to our big, bad, beautiful world. Don't you worry about a thing. I will take care of you,' " Mr. Ferris said. "To my shame and heartbreak, this was a promise I could not keep."
Turning to Mr. Hawkins at one point, he declared: "You strike like lightning, Mr. Rodriguez. You are as deadly as a poisonous snake with no warning rattle. Your history shows you are as predatory as a tiger with no visible stripes to warn us of your danger. You deserve punishment for your actions, but more importantly, society and our children need and ask for protection from the danger you represent."
Mr. Rodriguez sat impassively throughout the statements by the family, but rose and turned to them before Judge Manning imposed a sentence.
"My biggest fear in this past 14 months has been looking you in the eyes," he told the victims.
He told them of his work in the Allegheny County Jail, where he spent the 14 months awaiting trial and sentencing by counseling younger inmates against drugs and alcohol.
He told them he hoped to start a scholarship in memory of Adrienne, who had hoped to attend college next year. He promised to work to counsel young people against drugs and alcohol.
"I plan on continue working when I come home, if I ever come home," he said.
The families had asked Judge Manning to impose a collection of maximum sentences against Mr. Rodriguez and to make them all consecutive -- a move that would have placed him in prison for decades.
The judge met them part-way. He gave Mr. Rodriguez sentences of five to 10 years on counts of vehicular homicide and aggravated assault, making those sentences consecutive, meaning Mr. Rodriguez faced a minimum of a decade in prison, minus the year spent in jail awaiting trial and sentencing.
Mr. Hawkins, who said he could recall only walking alongside his friend, Adrienne, last year, then awakening in a hospital without a leg, was still angry.
"If I was the judge, I wouldn't have given him that. I would have given him execution," he said.
Mr. Ferris, acting as spokesman for Adrienne's family, was less angry.
"Mr. Rodriguez is likely to be of an age when he gets out where he'll be less dangerous," Mr. Ferris said later. "We got about as much as we could possibly get."
First Published: April 2, 2008, 4:00 a.m.
