Driver in fatal Brentwood hit-run tells judge he feared deportation

A Salvadoran immigrant who fled the scene after hitting and killing a man walking in the middle of a dark Brentwood street last year was sentenced to 3 months in jail Thursday after he said he panicked because he feared deportation under President Donald Trump.

Cesar Velasquez, 55, of Brentwood, the executive chef at Pace's Steak House in Hauppauge, has lived here legally with a work permit for 27 years. But when the accident happened at 11:20 p.m. on March 24, 2017, he and his attorney said he feared that would mean nothing at a time when the new administration was upending existing immigration policy.

Jose Reinerio Salinas, 41, also of Brentwood, was heavily intoxicated in the middle of Washington Avenue when first Velasquez and then a second driver hit him. The second driver stayed at the scene.

"That was the height of the Trump hysteria about deportation," Velasquez's attorney, Robert Macedonio, of Islip Terrace, said to state Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho in Central Islip.

"I just want to apologize for what happened, but I didn't have any other way to react because I was very nervous," Velasquez told the judge, through an interpreter. "Because of the changes with the new president, I was afraid."

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Marc Lindemann recommended a sentence of 2 to 6 years in prison, noting that although Salinas was drunk, he was also married and the father of four girls.

"If not for Mr. Velasquez's decision to leave the scene, perhaps Mr. Salinas would still be with us," Lindemann said. No one from the Salinas family was present in court. Lindemann declined to comment on the sentence afterward.

Camacho made no reference to the immigration issue when he explained his sentence.

He noted that he received about 30 letters vouching for Velasquez's good character. One of them, from the defendant's son, also named Cesar, said Velasquez cried all night after he got home and then surrendered to police without an attorney.

"It was not Mr. Velasquez's fault that he struck this person," Camacho said. "But to hit another human being, knowing you've probably killed that person, and drive away like a coward is a basic character flaw."

In addition to the jail time, Camacho sentenced Velasquez to 420 hours of community service and 5 years of probation.

Macedonio said the death of Salinas has weighed heavily on his client since it happened. He said Velasquez expects to return to work at Pace when he gets out of jail.