NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (AP) — A hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a Connecticut state trooper on a highway last year pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge Tuesday, agreeing to an 18-year prison sentence over the objection of the trooper’s widow.
Alex Oyola-Sanchez, 45, accepted the plea deal during a hearing in New Britain Superior Court. Sentencing was set for April 29.
Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier, 34, a nine-year veteran of the force, was working overtime on a traffic enforcement detail on May 30 when he pulled over a driver for not wearing a seat belt on Interstate 84 in Southington. As he was talking to the driver, a pickup truck entered the right shoulder and struck Pelletier’s cruiser, Pelletier and the stopped vehicle before driving off.
Oyola-Sanchez, of Hartford, was arrested several towns away on I-84 and charged with manslaughter, operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs and several other crimes.
Dominique Pelletier, the trooper’s widow, told a judge Tuesday that she opposed the plea deal and wanted Oyola-Sanchez to serve 30 years in prison.
“Will he be let out again to kill another person and cause more pain?” she asked. “Will I have to reopen these wounds again when he is up for parole? This man had no remorse for what he had just done. He fled the scene with the intent of getting away, leaving my husband lying on the highway, lifeless.”
Aaron Pelletier, a Southington native, was the 26th Connecticut trooper to die in the line of duty since the agency was founded in 1903. His police dog, Roso, was in the back of his cruiser at the time but wasn’t seriously hurt. Pelletier is survived by his wife and two young sons.
A state bail commissioner said last year that Oyola-Sanchez had previous convictions in his native Puerto Rico for third-degree murder and three counts of attempted homicide.
