An ex-New York City police officer was sentenced Tuesday to 1 ⅓ to 4 years in prison for killing a 13-year-old girl with mental disabilities in a hit-and-run crash in Levittown.
Michael Elardo had pleaded guilty in August at Nassau County court to leaving the scene of an accident.
Prosecutors have said that the 48-year-old Syosset man was driving a Town and Country minivan eastbound on Hempstead Turnpike when he struck Bryanna Soplin near the corner of Gardiners Avenue and fled the scene shortly after midnight on June 15.
The victim, who had reportedly left her family’s home without their knowledge, died at Nassau University Medical Center hours later.
Elardo surrendered to Homicide Squad detectives a day after the crash and initially pleaded not guilty but later admitted to the crime.
