Different charges brought in hit-and-run cases
Circumstances were different in Saugerties, New Paltz deaths, District Attorney’s Office says
Different circumstances and the evidence available to investigators in two of the three fatal hitand-run crashes this year in Ulster County have led to different charges against two of the three drivers allegedly responsible. A third driver has been identified but has not been charged.
Since Jan. 10, four Ulster County residents have died after being hit by vehicles whose drivers left the scene of the crashes that killed them.
Since then, police have charged two of the drivers and a third individual, the husband of one of the drivers, who was not driving any vehicle but allegedly attempted to hide evidence of the crash from officials.
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, at about 5:10 p.m., Starllie Swonyoung, 21, of Saugerties, a student at SUNY Purchase, was fatally struck from behind by a southbound vehicle as she and a friend walked along the southbound shoulder of U.S. Route 9W between the village of Saugerties and the hamlet of Malden.
Two weeks later, on Tuesday, Jan. 23, Raymond Rattray, 22, of New York City, a student at SUNY New Paltz, was struck and killed on state Route 208 near the SUNY New Paltz campus.
And, on Friday, March 1, near The Falcon nightclub in Marlborough, a hit-and-run crash killed two pedestrians. Kingston residents Donna Cristallo, 72, and Stephen Celuch, 75. Cristallo and Celuch died of injuries suffered when they were struck as they crossed U.S. Route 9W, state police have said.
On March 4, Malden residents Lacy L. Maxwell and Ryan M. Maxwell were arrested by Saugerties police and charged in connection with Swonyoung’s death.
Lacy Maxwell, 42, was charged with the felonies of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, insurance fraud, staging a motor vehicle accident and tampering with physical evidence. Ryan Maxwell, 43, was charged with the felonies of insurance fraud, staging a motor vehicle accident and tampering with physical evidence, police said.
Following arraignments in Ulster County Court on Tuesday, March 5, Lacy Maxwell was sent to Ulster County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. On Thursday, March 7, she was released from Ulster County Jail after posting a $200,000 insurance bail bond, according to a jail official.
Ryan Maxwell was released on his own recognizance after the arraignment. Both Lacy Maxwell and Ryan Maxwell have pleaded not guilty. Their cases are scheduled to return to Ulster County Court for conferences on April 30.
On March 25, Ulster County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Ty Kobelt, 33, of Gardiner. He was been charged with second-degree manslaughter, tampering with physical evidence and leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle crash, all felonies. He is being held in Ulster County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
While Lacy Maxwell, if convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, faces a maximum sentence of 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison, a conviction for Kobelt could result in a stiffer state prison sentence of 5 to 15 years.
This week, Paul V. Derohannesian, deputy chief assistant district attorney for the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, said circumstances in both the Kobelt and Lacy Maxwell cases are what led to their very different outcomes.
“There are similarities in that in both of the cases both operators of the vehicle left the scene, never reported the incidents and there was a death involved. However, every case is different,” Derohannesian said.
In the Saugerties case, he said Lacy Maxwell’s “conduct afterwards is what differentiates that from the New Paltz incident. And then the New Paltz incident it’s the proof of what the operator was doing beforehand that brings up different charges that are going to be there in that case that the Saugerties case won’t have,” Derohannesian said.
In Saugerties, he said, “there is no evidence of impairment, which is something you need to have for either a vehicular manslaughter or any kind of manslaughter — recklessly causing the death of another. In Saugerties, that case, there is no proof of it.”
In the New Paltz case, Derohannesian said Kobelt admitted to “being on the phone when he was operating the vehicle. (And) there is some evidence of use of marijuana before he was driving. It’s those factors that make it different for that case that we don’t have in Saugerties” where Lacy Maxwell’s arrest came months after the crash and long after investigators could have proven any impairment.
Saugerties Police Chief Robert Nuzzo said by phone last week that his department had no evidence of impairment on Lacy Maxwell’s part. “We have someone leaving the scene of a fatal accident. In our case it was compounded by the staged action the next day, that was the insurance fraud,” Nuzzo said.
The difference between charging Maxwell with leaving the scene of a fatal accident and manslaughter would have required evidence that the “driving was reckless in a way that could have contributed to the fatality,” Nuzzo said. “(A charge of) manslaughter, it would be that your driving was reckless in a way that contributed to the accident.”
In the Marlboro case, driver Angela Jennie Fischl, 25, of Newburgh, also did not turn herself in. She was found that night by town of Newburgh police about seven miles from the scene of the crash.
Fischl has still not been charged with any crime, and state police and Ulster County prosecutors have declined to comment on what they say is an open investigation.
Ulster County District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji has promised that he will investigate all three fatal hit-andruns to the fullest extent of the law.