Appearing before Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro in Riverside on Tuesday morning, Daniel Campbell, the driver in a 2021 hit-and-run in Amagansett, accepted the judge's latest sentencing recommendation: 90 days in jail, 90 days of community service, and five years' probation.
The turnabout provided for a remarkable and dramatic moment in court, where lawyers for both parties had earlier conferenced to discuss Mr. Campbell's fate.
The judge had previously promised Mr. Campbell that he would not serve any jail time after pleading guilty in August in the Amagansett hit-and-run accident on Old Stone Highway that led to the death of Devesh Samtani, a pedestrian and foreign national whose family hails from Hong Kong.
The victim was 18 and poised to start college at New York University in the fall.
The fatal Aug. 10, 2021, incident occurred following a nearby and well-attended house party at 37 Timber Lane in Amagansett that police had broken up and that the young Mr. Samtani had attended with friends.
Mr. Campbell was driving his father's 2012 Honda Pilot with his 17-year-old sister and several of her friends in the car when it hit Mr. Samtani.
According to police, Mr. Campbell then dropped those passengers off at the family house in Montauk and left in his sister's car to meet a close friend at the jetty by Gosman's restaurant in Montauk to talk about what had just happened.
During this time, police said, Mr. Campbell briefly used his cellphone to research how he might avoid capture by leaving the area.
After police showed up at his parents' Second House Road residence looking for him, Mr. Campbell returned home, where he was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident that involved a serious personal injury or death, a class-D felony in New York State punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Suffolk County prosecutors had sought a one-to-two-year sentence for Mr. Campbell.
The Samtani family has suggested a six-month sentence would provide them with some sense of justice, if not solace.
"I thought I killed him," Mr. Campbell told police while being questioned at his parents' house early on the morning of Aug 11, 2021. He said that he had a panic attack and fled.
Mr. Samtani died two days later from head injuries sustained in the accident.
Data from Mr. Campbell's cellphone on the night of the accident may have been a factor that swayed Justice Ambro to reverse course, said Omar Almanzar-Paramio, a Babylon attorney who is representing the Samtani family in any civil proceedings that may ensue from the event.
The Samtani family, whom Mr. Almanzar-Paramio described as "independently wealthy," said it will not be pursuing civil damages for personal gain. The family created a foundation in the wake of their son's death and in his name, and "the family is adamant that whatever money they get is going to the foundation," said Mr. Almanzar-Paramio.
Mr. Almanzar-Paramio was in court Tuesday, where he said he was also acting as a liaison between the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and the Samtani family.
He is a former assistant district attorney in that office. "I am helping facilitate communications between the family and the D.A.'s office," he said.
Mr. Almanzar-Paramio's practice specializes in cases involving personal injury, auto accidents, and traffic tickets. He also provides criminal-defense services.
The extended Samtani family has been a regular presence at court proceedings at the Cromarty Complex in Riverside but was not in court Tuesday. Mr. Campbell's parents did accompany their son to court.
Lawyers for the Samtani family said Justice Ambro was largely swayed in his decision to revoke his no-jail promise after information about Mr. Campbell's past driving record came to light, and was included in the sentencing investigation and recommendation report compiled by the Suffolk County probation office.
Benjamin Brafman, a New York City defense attorney with a celebrity client base that has included P. Diddy and the late Michael Jackson, has referred to Mr. Campbell as a "driving menace" based on that driving record, which was described in a U.K. Daily Mail article published in late August.
The paper reported that Mr. Campbell, whose family has houses in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County and in Montauk, "has racked up a catalogue of reckless driving violations" that included causing a head-on crash in White Plains in 2021 after going the wrong way down a one-way road, and getting caught speeding just weeks before the Amagansett accident.
"His heedless driving history goes back to 2020 with multiple violations," the paper reported after reviewing driving records, "including 8 points off his license that he racked up in less than a year's time."
Justice Ambro told Mr. Campbell last month that in accepting a guilty plea for leaving the scene of the accident, the young man from Montauk, who was 19 at the time of the accident, would be sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community service in lieu of jail time.
"I am aware of the promise I made," Justice Ambro said Tuesday morning, addressing Mr. Campbell directly. But based on the new information, he said, "the offer has changed."
Justice Ambro's change of mind meant that Mr. Campbell could have withdrawn his guilty plea and gone to trial, but he instead accepted the revised sentencing offer.
Outside Justice Ambro's courtroom on Tuesday morning, Mr. Brafman said he didn't believe Mr. Campbell would elect to go to trial — and not long after, the lawyer was proven correct.
"Do you wish to withdraw your plea?" Justice Ambro asked.
"No," said Mr. Campbell, whose sentencing hearing is to take place next Thursday.
Justice Ambro concluded the hearing by noting that all parties and their lawyers would then have the opportunity to address the court.
"The family declined commenting until sentencing on Nov. 3," said a family spokeswoman, Lindsey von Busch, vice president at Rubenstein Public Relations in New York City.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
