Guilty plea entered in crash killing officer

Raymond E. Jamison Jr., the drunken driver who pleaded guilty Wednesday to causing the early-morning accident that killed a Buffalo police officer July 24, has been grief-stricken “from the day this happened,” his attorney said.

After Jamison, 22, of Fairlane Drive, Boston, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and misdemeanor drunken driving, attorney Andrew C. LoTempio said his client is cooperating with insurance companies and has begun alcoholism counseling at Erie County Medical Center.

LoTempio said he hopes Erie County Judge Michael F. Pietruszka imposes a “far lesser” prison term than the four years Jamison could get in the death of Officer Jose A. Colon.

Jamison rammed the off-duty officer’s SUV on the southbound Niagara Thruway at about 4 a. m. in a crash that also injured two of Jamison’s passengers.

After a 30-minute conference during which the judge refused to indicate his sentencing preferences, Jamison pleaded guilty to the two charges as well as to two counts of vehicular assault for the injuries to his passengers.

A 12-year police veteran, Colon, 39, was driving home to Orchard Park after a day working on the department’s Mobile Response Unit when Jamison slammed into his car from behind near the Clinton Street ramp. Colon was pronounced dead about nine hours later in ECMC. Two of Jamison’s passengers, Steven E. Pelc, 21, and Melissa Marshall, 19, required medical treatment.

Jamison remains free on bail pending his Jan. 21 sentencing.

Mark John Grisanti, the Colon family attorney, said that while Jamison allegedly is cooperating with insurance companies, a civil suit could be filed by the family.

Following the plea proceeding, LoTempio stressed that Jamison “has accepted full responsibility and he feels horrible” about what LoTempio described as an accident that might have occurred even if his client hadn’t been drunk.

Before Jamison was allowed to leave court, the judge warned him not to drive or drink pending his upcoming sentencing.


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