The sentencing hearing of a Williston Park man convicted in the hit-and-run incident that killed an Albertson man last year was postponed until October 17, prosecutors said.
Raymond Kalenka, 46, of 86 Yale Street in Williston Park, was found guilty in early August of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and tampering with physical evidence and had been scheduled to be sentenced to up to seven years in prison Tuesday.
On Aug. 12, 2012, Kalenka was driving his 2006 Mercedes-Benz northbound on Broad Street at 3:45 a.m. when he hit Albertson resident Dean LaLima, 41, who was riding his bicycle home from Grimaldi’s Pizza in Garden City, where he worked as a host and manager.
Kalenka then continued to his home and removed a piece of the inner fender liner on the driver’s side of his car that had been knocked loose when he hit LaLima, according to prosecutors. According to a news release from Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s office after Kalenka’s conviction, the inner fender was not recovered.
LaLima was later found lying in the roadway at Syracuse Street and Broad Street and was pronounced dead at the scene by a Nassau County Ambulance Advanced Medical Technician at 4:20 a.m., having sustained a fractured skull, collarbone, pelvis and other injuries to his head and legs.
“Dean was a great friend of not only the [Garden City] Chamber of Commerce. He was a friend of many chamber members and residents around the village,” Althea Robinson, executive director of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce, said in the incident’s aftermath. “He will be very sorely missed by many of us.”
Two days after the incident, Kalenka was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad, who had received tips in response to a Crime Stoppers Bulletin that had been released.
Kalenka’s car was identified as the one investigators were seeking, though a police spokesperson at the time did not disclose how police identified the vehicle.
“The evidence clearly showed that Kalenka knew what he had done, had every opportunity to notify the police, and then went a step further by covering up his actions,” Rice said in a statement following the conclusion of Kalenka’s two-week trial presided over by Judge Jerald Carter in Nassau County Court. “I hope this verdict provides Mr. Kalenka’s friends and family some solace with the knowledge that this defendant has been brought to justice.”
The accident was the second tragedy to strike Grimaldi’s in a year. In November 2011, the restaurant’s owner and a close friend of LaLima’s, Russell Cioli, died suddenly.
Susan Eigl, a senior real estate specialist at The Donnelly Group in Garden City, said after the accident that she became friends with LaLima after meeting him through Ciolli.
“It’s very shocking. He was a very warm, friendly loving person,” she said. “He was a big personna at Grimaldi’s, very accommodating, very good at his job. I’m just hoping they’ll find who did this.”
Assistant District Attorneys Katie E. Zizza and Christopher M. Casa of the Rice’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau prosecuted the case, while Kalenka was represented by Brian J. Davis, whose office is based in Garden City.
