RUTLAND — The former municipal attorney who had his sentence in a fatal drunken hit-and-run case overturned by the state’s highest court last month has lost his bid to delay a new sentencing hearing.
Judge Theresa DiMauro has scheduled Christopher Sullivan’s sentencing for June 29. A jury convicted him of drunken driving with death resulting and leaving the scene of a fatality in the April 2013 crash in downtown Rutland that killed Mary Jane Outslay, 74, of Mendon.
“The court has provided defendant with more than 10 weeks’ notice for the sentencing yet counsel waited almost four weeks after receiving the hearing notice to file this motion to continue,” DiMauro wrote in her order Monday denying Sullivan’s request for a delay.
Sullivan, 57, had been sentenced in July 2015 to four to 10 years in prison on the two felony charges. However, the Vermont Supreme Court overturned that sentence, ruling that the trial court judge, DiMauro, should have allowed the former city attorney more time to hire, prepare and present expert testimony for his sentencing.
“The sole basis for the remand from the Vermont Supreme Court was to allow defendant to present a mitigation expert,” the judge added in her order. “Defendant is free to choose any such expert if the one he is consulting is not available or, given ample advance notice of the June 29th hearing, that expert can rearrange his schedule in order to be available.”
In addition to seeking a delay in sentencing, Sullivan’s public defender, Joshua O’Hara, has filed a request for a bail review hearing. That hearing, which could result in Sullivan’s release pending sentencing, has not yet been set.
Sullivan is being held in the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
The crash took place about 7:45 p.m. on April 10, 2013. Outslay was killed as she tried to cross Strongs Avenue in downtown Rutland and was struck by a car that fled the scene.
A day after the crash, Sullivan went to police to report he was behind the wheel of the vehicle involved in the crash.
O’Hara, Sullivan’s attorney, declined to comment Tuesday. The Vermont attorney general’s office handled the trial and appeal. Assistant Attorney General Ultan Doyle, who is prosecuting the case, also could not be reached Monday for comment.
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