Endymion drunk driver who plowed into crowd sentenced to 5 years

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The man who crashed his vehicle into a packed Endymion crowd, injuring dozens, was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with 1 year suspended and credit for 11 months served. It amounts to just under four years of prison time for Neilson Rizzuto. He must also go to AA and MADD meetings and write letters to victims.

In court Rizzuto, 26, addressed each of the victims by name, apologized and said what he did will haunt him forever. Rizzuto pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts of vehicular negligent injuring at a court hearing in October. Prior to that he pleaded guilty to 13 of misdemeanor counts in connection with the crash that injured at least 32 people. Criminal District Court Judge Ben ordered a pre-sentence investigation to be completed by the sentencing date. That had not been done by sentencing time Friday, but the judge decided to proceed anyway. Rizzuto's guilty plea to the felony charges carried a maximum prison sentence of five years for each count, which gave him exposure to a maximum of 55 years in prison, although judges rarely string together sentences to run consecutively. For a defendant like Rizzuto, a young offender who took responsibility for his crimes, any sentences were expected to run concurrently. Faye Thomas Bertrand, one of Rizzuto's victims, said in October that since the Feb. 25 crash, she has intense headaches, insomnia and has been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety. "It's kind of a burden lifted off of us," she said of the guilty plea. Police have said Rizzuto's blood alcohol level was .232 when he ran into the crowd, nearly three times Louisiana's legal limit of .08.

Allison Reinhardt, who was lifted off the ground after Rizzuto hit her with his pickup truck, said she hopes he will share his experience with others to help prevent similar crashes in the future. She also said she hopes Rizzuto will keep in touch with her and the other victims. "He needs to be connected with us and see these are life-changing decision that you make," Reinhardt said. "He's so lucky no one was killed." Nanak Rai, Rizzuto's attorney, said that the guilty plea is his client's way of accepting full responsibility for his actions that night. "He's very sorry for what happened to the victims," Rai said. "Obviously by taking responsibility and pleading guilty he's saying 'I did it, I'm owning up to it, it's my problem.' " Rai said Rizzuto is open to speaking to others about the dangers of driving while intoxicated. "Obviously he's in the position he's in because … of the choices he's made."

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