Posted on Sat, Oct. 24, 2009
The relentless quest Betty Davis launched three years ago to find the hit-and-run driver who killed her son ended yesterday in a Gloucester County courtroom.
The finale, however, came with disappointment.
Joseph Bozzelli, 22, of Franklinville, was sentenced to three years for fleeing after he hit Brian Lilley, 30, of Monroe Township, in October 2006.
He will likely go home in less time than it took to convict him.
"I'm sickened," a tearful Davis said, clutching her younger son, Tommy, as she spoke with reporters after the hearing. Around her neck hung a picture of Lilley, a carpet installer who was walking home from a friend's house when he was struck by Bozzelli's vehicle.
A passing motorist later found Lilley's body. His upper spine had been fractured and he suffered severe trauma to the brain stem, authorities said.
Davis worked doggedly to find the driver. She hounded police and launched her own investigation, seeking information from patrons of businesses and bars open that night. She papered poles and trees with fliers, and even erected a billboard to publicize a reward for information.
It was that billboard, authorities said, that generated the tip that led to Bozzelli's arrest last fall.
Davis knew that Bozzelli - who had been driving with a suspended license - faced no more than five years under state law, she said yesterday. She learned recently that prosecutors had agreed to a three-year sentence if Bozzelli would plead guilty to some of the charges.
Yesterday, Davis, 59, struggled to steady herself, her voice cracking with anger, grief, and frustration during the hearing before Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall.
"I want you to know when you took my son's life, you took my life also," the retired telephone employee told Bozzelli at the hearing, pausing to compose herself as she read from a prepared statement. "Why wouldn't you just stop to help him?"
Some day, when his first child is born, Davis said, she hopes Bozzelli remembers her son's face and finally understands the pain he inflicted on her and others who loved Lilley.
"May God and Brian have mercy on your soul."
As she spoke, more than a dozen relatives and friends of Lilley's, many dabbing their eyes, sat quietly in the courtroom.
Bozzelli, wearing a bright orange prison jumpsuit, stood next to defense lawyer Timothy Reilly. He showed no emotion and offered no remorse. Asked whether he wanted to speak, he declined.
Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Laurie Cimino asked the judge to honor the three-year plea agreement struck last month.
Bozzelli pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident and driving with a suspended license. He also pleaded guilty to violating probation four times by failing to report for mandatory drug testing in an unrelated case.
The judge noted that Bozzelli had agreed to plead guilty, but said his cooperation had no bearing on the sentence because he had fled the accident scene and destroyed evidence.
Authorities said Bozzelli had his vehicle crushed at a salvage yard owned by his family. Investigators never found it, Cimino said.
The judge also noted Bozzelli's criminal history, which included a conviction last year for receiving stolen property.
Marshall sentenced Bozzelli to concurrent three-year sentences on each count. He imposed 18 months for violating probation, also to run concurrently, and ordered the suspension of Bozzelli's driver's license for two more years. In custody since his arrest, Bozzelli received credit for 342 days served.
With good behavior, it's possible Bozzelli will be home from prison by Christmas 2011.
Since Lilley's death, legislators have made the penalty for leaving the scene of a fatal accident more severe.
Under the law amended in 2007, Bozzelli would have faced up to 10 years in prison. The timing of the change just adds to Davis' pain, she said.
"He didn't deserve to die that way. No one does," Davis said of her son. And to others seeking justice in the unsolved death of a loved one, she added some counsel: "Never give up. Never give up."
Contact staff writer Barbara Boyer at 856-779-3838 or bboyer@phillynews.com.
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