Six years in jail for crash that killed two teens

Pine Plains — Dustin Hale of Pine Plains was sentenced on Thursday, Oct. 9, for his part in a fatal car crash that happened on Aug. 29, 2013.

The one-car accident on Schultz Hill Road in Pine Plains killed Hale’s passengers: Zachary Pruner, 16, and Gian Paolo Stagnaro, 17. 

Hale, then 16, and passenger Niall Johnson, then 16, survived with life-threatening and non-life-threatening injuries, respectively.

Now 17, Hale was tried as an adult and sentenced by Judge Stephen Greller at Dutchess County Court in Poughkeepsie to six to 18 years in state prison for aggravated vehicular homicide.

He was also sentenced to four to 12 years on two counts of second-degree manslaughter.

All sentence terms run concurrently, rather than cumulatively; the earliest Hale will be eligible for parole is after six years, the minimum for a homicide count.

“I felt that the judge was very fair and that he took into account a lot of different issues,” said Stagnaro’s mother, Valerie Hammarth, “most of all the fact that the crash was not the first time that Dustin drove recklessly or sped or, according to all of his friends, engaged in impaired driving.”

Hammarth referred to a text message released during the trial that revealed a criticism from one of Hale’s friends.

The unnamed friend reportedly said Hale had driven while  impaired in the past and urged him not to do it again.

“Greller went through his reasoning,” Hammarth said. “It was a violent crime — it appears that he was impaired.”

Johnson testified to smoking marijuana with the group of boys on the day of the accident.

“In my victim impact statement I asked Judge Greller to take advantage of this opportunity to make a really strong statement to the community that impaired and reckless driving wont be tolerated in New York state,” Hammarth said. “And I think he did.

“Nobody is a winner — none of us is a winner in this situation,” she added. “Don’t think that I derive any enjoyment of his sentence. I honestly think it’s necessary. I don’t think that he’s safe to be on the road.”

Hammarth said that over the weekend, after the sentencing, she and Pruner’s mother, Sue Treacy, traveled to Gettysburg, Pa., to spread the ashes of their children.

Stagnaro was a member of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry Civil War re-enactment group and loved visiting Gettysburg, Hammarth said.