CICERO, N.Y. -- The driver in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 37-year-old woman Thursday was under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash, state police said today.
The driver, Vincent Carello, 28, of 7239 Lakeshore Road, was also intoxicated at the time of the 7 a.m. crash on Lakeshore Road in Cicero that killed 37-year-old Summer A. Rupert-Wozniczka, state police said.
Rupert-Wozniczka was running along the two-lane road when Carello drove into her, police said. Carello left the scene. Two women and paramedics tried to save Rupert-Wozniczka, but she later was declared dead at Upstate University Hospital.
This arrest was Carello's first driving while intoxicated charge, according to Onondaga County jail records.
A blood test was taken to determine his blood alcohol content, state police Trooper Jack Keller said. The results of the test are not yet available.
Carello was charged with driving while intoxicated under "common Law," meaning the charge is based on a police officer's observation without a chemical test result.
Carello has been arrested several times before, according to police records and the syracuse.com/The Post-Standard archives.
He was sentenced to six months at the Jamesville Correctional Facility and five years probation on Jan. 4, 2007 after he pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary on Nov. 16, 2006, court records show.
The guilty plea satisfied six other charges, including second-degree burglary, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, third-degree criminal mischief, criminal possession of a stolen property and two counts of petit larceny, court records show. Carello was arrested on those charges between Jan. 7, 2006 and Oct. 23, 2006.
Carello violated his probation on March 2, 2009 after he was charged with petit larceny on Jan. 29, 2009. He was also charged with failing to keep an appointment at the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in 2008.
Carello was arraigned in Cicero Town Court Thursday night on felony charges of second-degree vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, as well as misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and driving under the influence of drugs.
He was also ticketed for a speeding violation, unsafe tires and two lane violations, jail records show.
Staff writer Douglass Dowty contributed to this report.
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