Driver gets 12 years in death of Boca bicyclist

While imposing a 12-year prison sentence for the death of a Boca Raton bicyclist, the judge Monday noted the unusual circumstances that led to Paul Maida being charged as the driver in the tragic crash.

After 65-year-old George Morreale was killed April 6, 2014, police accused Maida’s girlfriend Bianca Fichtel as the driver of the pickup truck and excused Maida as her pas- senger.

That’s because at the scene on Yamato Road just west of Interstate 95, Fichtel, 27, and Maida, 33, both told police that Fichtel was behind the wheel of the Ford F-150 when it veered into the bike lane and hit Morreale’s Schwinn.

“They seemed to be working in tandem that day, let’s just put it that way,” Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Charles Burton said before sentencing Maida, who was found guilty of three charges at a trial in July.

Assistant State Attorney Laura Laurie later said Fichtel’s initial statement to the cops couldn’t be explained.

“The big question is, why didn’t she say that he had been driving?” Laurie said. “I think that sometimes you can’t rationalize irrational behavior, why she did what she did.”

More than a year after the crash, Fichtel approached prosecutors with a new account. Then on house arrest on a DUI manslaughter charge, she insisted Maida was the driver who hit Morreale.

She said that moments after the crash, they switched seats at a red light without getting out of the truck’s cab, because he refused to turn back to the crash site.

Fichtel also said she and Maida remained in a romantic relationship for months after the crash and had been emailing each other.

Once Boca Raton Police and prosecutors viewed the emails,

they cleared Fichtel and arrested Maida. She was the key witness at his trial, with the emails presented as evidence.

Maida was convicted of three charges punishable by up to 36 years behind bars: leaving the scene of a crash involving death; driving while license canceled, suspended or revoked causing serious bodily injury; and false report of a crime.

The jury acquitted him of a DUI manslaughter count in the death of Morreale, an expert carpenter near retirement when he was killed on his routine morning ride.

On Monday, the prosecutor requested a 20-year sentence, while defense at- torney Robert Resnick asked for a nine-and-halfyear term, the minimum possible penalty.

Maida expressed remorse to the victim’s widow Lois, daughter Faith, and son Leonard. He also asked the judge for mercy, though he plans to appeal.

“My heart goes out to the family for their loss,” said Maida, of West Boca. “I’m sorry, I really am.”

Lois Morreale placed a few pieces of her late husband’s woodworking on a courtroom table. She said she’s “sad almost every day” over the “deep void in my life” without her “soul mate, my best friend, my love, my confidant” of nearly 44 years.

Judge Burton said the punishment for Maida can’t ease the family’s heartbreak.

“Other than at least hopefully to put this sad chapter to rest, I know you have to deal with the rest of your lives with your loss,” he said.