Man avoids prison time for crash
BY JOHN ZICK THE LEADER

BATH - A Canisteo man apologized Thursday for his role in a car crash that killed 47-year-old Donna Irizzary last November.

To little, too late, said the victim's family, outraged Robert Buono was spared any jail time.

"This is a nightmare I deal with every night," said Audra Hurlburt, the victim's daughter. "My mom meant the world to me. I'm lost without her."

Buono, 69, was the driver of a car that sped through an intersection and slammed into a tree Nov. 3, 2006, at the County Route 96-County Route 87 junction in Wayne.

Irizzary was pronounced dead at the scene. Buono suffered serious chest injuries. A second passenger, Shelly Davis, 33, of Hornell, was also seriously injured.

"It's something I have to live with for the rest of my life," Buono said. "I would not have knowingly taken a life. I would like to apologize to the family."

After the apology - which was openly rebuked by the family - Steuben County Court Judge Joseph Latham sentenced 69-year-old Robert Buono to six months of home incarceration and five years probation.

"This is not even right," Hurlburt said and she stormed out of the courtroom.

Hurlburt and her sister, Sherry Krise, asked Latham to sentence Buono to four years in prison, the maximum term allowed by law. Buono pleaded guilty earlier this year to criminally negligent homicide.

"Our mother was a very loving mother and grandmother," said Krise, adding her mother had nine grandchildren.

Buono, who is a disabled U.S. Navy veteran, was ordered to pay more than $8,000 in restitution in addition to the detention and probation.