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Coram Man Pleads Guilty to Fatal Hit-and-run

A Coram man has admitted to crashing his car into a 56-year-old jogger and fleeing the scene in Mount Sinai last summer.

Thomas Costa pleaded guilty Monday at Suffolk County court to leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death or serious physical injury.

Prosecutors said the 31-year-old struck and killed Karen Benjamin as she jogged on a Sunday morning last June. She died July 17 after being comatose for three and a half weeks.

“After a house-to-house canvass in the vicinity of the hit and run, detectives found a damaged BMW in the rear yard at Costa’s parents’ house,” District Attorney Tom Spota said.

Costa is expected to be sentenced Jan. 13 to two to six years in prison.