A Williston Park man was sentenced to one and a third to four years in prison on Thursday following his conviction for leaving the scene of an accident after his car struck and killed a restaurant manager from Albertson who was left lying in the road.
Raymond Kalenka, 46, of Williston Park, was sentenced in Mineola by Nassau County Judge Jerald Carter, who presided over his trial in late July and previously set the maximum sentence between two and a third and seven years.
“This defendant had every opportunity to remain at the scene and contact the police, but he chose to leave a dying man in the street and hide the evidence of what he had done,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “Mr. Kalenka showed no regard for the victim’s condition after the incident – only saving his own skin.”
Just after 4 a.m. on Aug. 12, 2012, Kalenka was driving on Broad Street in Williston Park when he hit Dean LaLima, who had been riding his bicycle home from his job as a host and manager of Grimaldi’s Pizza in Garden City.
Kalenka then continued to his home on Yale Street, where he removed a piece of the inner fender liner from the driver’s side of his 2006 Mercedes-Benz that had been knocked loose in the accident. Kalenka’s car was later identified as the one investigators were seeking.
LaLima, 41, was found lying in the roadway at Syracuse Street and Broad Street and pronounced dead at the scene by a Nassau County Ambulance Advanced Medical Technician, having sustained fractures to his skull, collarbone and pelvis as well as other injuries to his head and legs.
Prosecutors and law enforcement officials have said it is unclear why LaLima was lying in the road, but expert testimony during the trial suggested the injuries he sustained were common with someone who was already lying down rather than upright and walking.
During the trial, Kalenka maintained he thought he ran over a speed bump, and only upon returning to the scene later did he realize he hit a person. Police said Kalenka was likely intoxicated at the time of the accident, though the charges were not alcohol-related.
Prosecutors recommended the maximum sentence, saying Kalenka’s removal of parts from his car and return to the scene during the investigation without notifying police of his role in the accident were particularly disturbing and should not be overlooked.
“He had two choices to make. One was to stay and call 9-1-1 and wait until police finished their investigation, or he could leave,” said Assistant District Attorney Katie E. Zizza, who prosecuted the case in addition to Christopher M. Casa of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau.
“And by leaving that night, he precluded police from concluding their investigation…This sends a message to him and society that this is a serious crime,” Zizza continued.
In his final statement before his sentencing, Kalenka apologized to the LaLima family and expressed regret that he would not be available for his three daughters and that he would likely be stripped of his license as a certified public accountant, which he described as one of his life’s biggest accomplishments.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think of Dean, and I wish I could take that day back,” Kalenka said.
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.
LaLima’s death 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.
LaLima’s father, John, after sobbing through a statement during the hearing in which he described how his son cared for his parents and was a role model for his three nephews and other children in the community, told reporters that Kalenka received a more lenient sentence by fleeing the scene and averting drunk-driving charges.
“The system has to be changed, otherwise we are going to continue to have people killed needlessly and people running away when there is a chance [to save them,]” John said. “The law has to be changed to make people who run away and leave someone to die in the street have to pay more of a penalty than one and a third to four years.”
Kalenka was joined in court Thursday by his father, brothers, ex-wife and ex-sister-in-law. He was represented by Brian J. Davis, who had said after the trial he was considering an appeal.
