Driver in Fatal 2021 Hit and Run Pleads Guilty, Judge Leaning Toward Probation

The driver in a fatal hit and run that killed a Hong Kong teen in Amagansett last August pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court on Friday, August 5 and is now awaiting sentencing, which could include no jail time.

RELATED: Parents of Teen Killed in 2021 Hit and Run Await Friday Ruling 

According the Samtani family’s attorney and the Suffolk prosecutor, 20-year-old Westchester and Montauk resident Daniel Campbell, who was 19 at the time he struck 18-year-old Devesh Samtani and left the scene (Samtani died in the hospital three days later), the judge has agreed to consider Samtani’s parents’ call for 1–3 years jail sentence, as requested by the prosecution, but Campbell, who has an otherwise clean record, is expected to receive a lighter sentence of 5 years probation with community service.

Campbell first pleaded not guilty and on January 5 a Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on a felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. He is eligible for as much as 7 years in prison, though the real question now is whether Campbell will be sentenced to 1–3 years behind bars or probation and community service.

Samtani had been in town spending time off in the final weeks of summer with his cousin and a friend before beginning his studies at New York University when he was hit outside a large party that police had broken up on a particularly dangerous stretch of Old Stone Highway near the corner of Eastwood Court at 11:35 p.m. on August 10, 2021.

The driver, Campbell, was headed northbound with nine other passengers in his Honda Pilot when he crashed into Samtani and, rather than stopping to help, fled the scene, took his passengers home and switched vehicles before visiting a friend.

Two of his passengers reported the incident to police and he was arrested at home about two hours later.

Meanwhile, Samtani was hospitalized in Southampton and then Stony Brook where he succumbed to his injuries three days later on August 13.