A Long Island man has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for striking and killing a diner patron while under the influence of alcohol as he tried to drive off with his soup takeout, the district attorney announced.
Willem Specht, 63, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated vehicular homicide, assault and aggravated driving while intoxicated in the January 2023 death of 61-year-old Joseph Devito.
At a minimum, Specht's sentence calls for seven years in prison.
Devito was standing on the sidewalk in front of the On Parade Diner, talking to a friend on the afternoon of Jan. 18, 2023, when investigators say a "highly intoxicated" Specht rapidly reversed his car from a parking spot and hit him. He almost hit the friend, as well, prosecutors said.
Devito suffered catastrophic head injuries and died shortly afterwards at Syosset Hospital.
After hitting Devito, Specht kept reversing and drove over another sidewalk, striking a ramp and a metal fence leading into the diner. He continued in reverse and struck the exterior wall of the diner.
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Specht then drove forward and stopped his car in a parking spot in the direction where he originally came from. He exited his car, stood in the diner’s parking lot for a short period of time, and then tried to leave. A witness stopped him.
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Specht was arrested shortly thereafter by the Nassau County Police Department. A search warrant for his blood taken at the hospital revealed that his blood alcohol content was 0.18% more than three hours after the incident.
“During the course of this prosecution and against court orders, Specht continued to drink brazenly and publicly," District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. "Surveillance video even captured the defendant entering his local liquor store, buying a bottle of vodka, and uncapping it right in the parking lot at the same time he was scheduled and failed to appear for a court date in Joseph Devito’s tragic death."
"Joseph was a dependable and compassionate man," she added. "Specht’s irresponsible drinking and reckless choices robbed the Devito family of a husband and father’s supportive presence. I hope that this defendant uses his significant prison sentence to reflect on the heartbreak that he has caused."
