Raymond E. Jamison Jr., a Town of Boston construction worker, pleaded guilty today to criminally negligent homicide and drunk driving in the death of an off-duty Buffalo police officer on the Niagara Thruway early on July 24.
Officer Jose A. Colon's SUV was rammed from behind by Jamison about 4 a.m. on the southbound I-190, just before the Clinton Street ramp. The crash also injured two of Jamison's four passengers.
Erie County Judge Michael F. Pietruszka refused to give Jamison a sentencing commitment on his plea to single counts of criminally negligent homicide, misdemeanor drunken driving and two felony counts of vehicular assault for the injuries to his two passengers.
With no objection from Kelley A. Omel, chief of the district attorney's Vehicular Crimes Unit, the judge let Jamison remain free on $50,000 previously posted bail pending his Jan. 21 sentencing.
Jamison, 22, of Fairlane Drive, faces a possible prison term of up to four years. But defense attorney Andrew C. LoTempio said after the plea proceeding that he hopes the judge imposes a "far lesser" sentence.
LoTempio said Jamison, whose car was "totaled" in the fatal rear-end crash, "has accepted full responsibility and he feels horrible" about what happened.
Mark John Grisanti, the Colon family's attorney, also attended the plea proceeding and said that while insurance carriers are working out payments, a civil suit "could be" filed by the police officer's family.
Jamison is undergoing alcoholism counseling at the Erie County Medical Center. Today's plea was witnessed by his mother, brother and two younger relatives.
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