A New Britain man charged with seriously injuring a Farmington police officer back in 2021 while fleeing a scene was sentenced in Hartford Superior Court on Thursday.
Pedro Acevedo was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in June to charges of assault in the first degree, assault on a public safety officer, and evading responsibility resulting in serious injury.
“[The officer] was responding to a call of individuals stealing catalytic converters,” an attorney for the state said. “This defendant, after seeing the police car, drove backwards, 'cause he was in a parking lot, up onto a curb, and attempts to escape Officer O’Donnell. This defendant drove his car directly at the door that Officer O’Donnell was getting out of, pinning Officer O’Donnell between the door and the car.”
James O’Donnell, a Farmington police officer at the time, was hospitalized for a month and spent a year in rehab.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“I want to apologize to him because it never was my intention to run him over,” Acevedo said, addressing the officer in court.
His defense attorney said he didn’t agree with the sentence length of 15 years, but the judge said it fit the crime.
“Mr. Acevedo did not intend to hit Officer O’Donnell with his car, as we’ve talked about many times, Mr. Acevedo is blind in his left eye,” his attorney said. “He has been extremely remorseful for what happened. I have always felt that 15 years was a number that was too high for Mr. Acevedo to accept.”
“It is actually a sentence that I think fits the crime and would fit the crime even if it had not been Mr. Acevedo’s specific intent,” the judge responded.
O’Donnell’s wife Kris said the couple leaned on their family during the difficult time, and are happy to finally see justice.
“His spine was severed, so they had to take a lot of hardware, put it back together … his pelvis was crushed, his foot was broken in multiple places. He was in a wheelchair for over two months,” Kris O’Donnell said. “We focused on our kids. I had a 5-month-old and we had a 2½-year-old that we couldn’t tell daddy was almost killed at work.”
O’Donnell has started a new chapter working for Rocky Hill police. Kris said she hopes the sentence sends a message.
“We thought that it was a pretty important deal to make sure that these defendants know that there is a cause and effect. If you hit a police officer in this state, there are going to be consequences, more than just a slap on the wrist,” she said.
