An East Haven police cruiser that was leaving the parking lot of the Country House Restaurant captured video of the banged up Chevy pick up traveling west on Foxon Road (Rt 80) just seconds after striking 59-year-old Lynn Travisano, who was crossing the road with an assistance of a walker on her way back to her house.
According to police, the officer was on his way to an unrelated call and was waiting to pull out of the parking lot when he saw a banged up car with front-end damage. He thought nothing of it, until he turned in the direction the car had come from and found a woman lying in the road.
"There is a witness, who was in the vehicle, who stated he asked this defendant to stop and he would not stop," said New Haven State's Attorney David Strollo.
The defendant, to whom Strollo refers, is 33-year-old Edward Santomassimo, of East Haven, who allegedly told police his ex-girlfriend, Jeanna Suraci, 33, was the one driving the truck at the time of the crash. But, the state's attorney isn't buying it.
"This defendant (Santomassimo) caused his girlfriend to switch seats with him and drive," said Strollo. Then, when he eventually got caught by police, he tried to put the blame on his girlfriend."
East Haven's in-car dash cameras are always recording in one-minute loops, police say. Each minute replaces the previous one a minute later. That is, until the police car's lights are activated. Then the minute before the lights are activated is saved, plus the subsequent footage.
This technology is designed so that police catch the actual violation, not just the chase afterwards.
"If the video started only after the violation occurred, it would be of no use to us or court, but with the previous minute recorded, the video captures the violation as well as the motor vehicle stop," East Haven Public Information Officer Lt. Joseph Murgo explained.
In this case, that technology proved invaluable.
"It wasn’t until the video was reviewed that we realized the evading vehicle was captured on the officers previous minute of recording before he turned his lights on.," Murgo said. "Once again, this technology has proved useful for us and played a huge part in apprehending the suspects."
Meanwhile, Santomassimo's lawyer argues that while the state believes it has a strong case on the evading charge, there is no evidence to show that his client is criminally responsible for the fatal accident.
"The decedent was walking across the roadway between two signals, not in a crosswalk, at night, in an unlit area," Attorney Willie Dow, Santomassimo's lawyer.
But, Dow danced around the question of why his client left the scene. The vehicle was spotted by an assistant police chief in New Haven about 30 minutes after the accident when it was pulling into the parking lot of a New Haven pizza place.
"We are going to face the charges when we come back to court," said Dow when asked if his client told him he knew he hit someone.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, one of the passengers in the truck told investigators he told Santomassimo several times to stop the vehicle, but he refused, saying he could not stop because he had an outstanding arrest warrant.
"He just kept going," said Strollo. "He got out looked at the car and there were human remains on the car and he still didn't make any phone calls."
Santomassimo, who's bond was set at $200,000, is due back in court December 22, the same date as his ex-girlfriend, who was released on a promise to appear and electronic monitoring.
