‘For us, it’s never going to be over’

Man gets 40 years for driving drunk in 2018, killing mother of two

DEERFIELD BEACH – Her killer is headed to prison. A Broward judge sentenced him to 40 years behind bars.

But for Luca Cagnana, whose wife was struck down by a drunken driver two years ago, the satisfaction of the sentence can only go so far.

“It’s never over,” said Cagnana, 53. “For us, it’s never going to be over.”

Tina Cagnana, 47, was walking with her teenage daughter in a bike lane along Ocean Drive in Deerfield Beach on May 4, 2018, when David Posta, driving a white Ford F-150 pickup, drifted into the bike lane, struck the mother of two, briefly applied the brakes and then continued southbound, leaving the accident scene, according to prosecutors and a police report.

Cagnana’s daughter, 16 at the time, was not hurt. Cagnana was taken to Broward Health North Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead less than a half-hour after the hit-and-run.

“We are pleased with the decision that the court made. Maybe it will bring a little bit of peace,” Luca Cagnana said Monday, just days after Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan sent Posta, now 43, to prison.

“He took away my daughters’ right to have their mother be there for their life accomplishments. Graduations. Weddings. The births of their children. They’re never going to have their mother with them to experience those things.”

Posta, who lived in Boca Raton, was found six hours later at a 7-Eleven in Tamarac, the damage to the front of his vehicle still evident, according to his arrest report.

Posta told police he was scared after striking the woman because he knew his vehicle’s registration was expired. He refused to submit to a blood alcohol test.

Last Thursday, Posta entered an open guilty plea, leaving the sentencing up to the judge because no agreement had been reached with prosecutors. Usan, seeing Posta had been arrested twice in other states for drunken driving, sentenced him to 30 years in prison for leaving the scene of an accident and 10 years for DUI manslaughter.

He’s a recidivist, said prosecutor Ross Weiner. “He didn’t learn his lesson the first and second time he was arrested. This time his roommate took his keys from him earlier that night, and it still didn’t teach him his lesson.”

Posta’s lawyer, Brian Greenwald, said his client knew he was prison bound but chose not to fight the charges because he knew he deserved to be penalized for what he did.

“For what it’s worth, and the family of the victim will never believe him, but Posta really does feel remorse and wishes he were the one who died rather than the victim,” Greenwald said.

Weiner said Monday that prosecutors are declining to pursue a separate misdemeanor charge against Posta for leaving the scene of an accident a week before the crash that killed Cagnana.