BURRELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man who pleaded guilty in a fatal hit-and-run accident in Burrell Township in 2005 was sentenced Friday to one to two years in prison. He acknowledged that he drove over a fallen bicyclist and kept going almost seven years ago.
Gregory Wisneski Jr., 27, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty earlier this year to a first-degree misdemeanor of hit-and-run in the July 15, 2005 incident.
Wisneski was originally charged in the death of 29-year-old Sean Pearce, who was lying in the road after his bicycle hit a construction barrel on Route 119 in Burrell Township. But the defense won dismissal of the charges after arguing the state couldn't prove Pearce was still alive when run over before the state Supreme Court overruled that decision.
Wisneski has acknowledged running over Pearce, but not causing the man's death.
Pearce’s family said Friday that the sentencing gives them a sense of closure.
Family and friends of Pearce held a memorial Friday in Indiana County by releasing 29 balloons in honor of the 29-year-old man.
Pearce’s sister, Heather Pearce Kunkle, led the group.
“My family is broken and we’re destroyed. I never felt such anger in my life until my brother’s death,” Pearce Kunkle said. “It was an accident when it happened, but he intentionally left him there for dead and that’s just wrong.”
The Pennsylvania Legislature passed a law last week stiffening the penalty for hit-and-run drivers called Sean’s Law.
“His death means something for the future victims of hit-and-run because the law we fought to change has changed,” Pearce Kunkle said. “Now there is no loophole and people aren’t going to get away with it. It’s better to stay and render aid.”
The law goes into effect in September.
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