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Christopher G. Dewitt, 31, was sentenced to 7 1/3 to 22 years in state prison for aggravated vehicular homicide (a Class B felony) by Judge Thomas Leone Thursday afternoon in Cayuga County Court.

Dewitt fatally struck the 67-year-old Stockwell with his vehicle Jan. 10 on North Street. Before he was sentenced, victim impact statements from four members of her family were read in court.

Stockwell's niece Sarah Hofstra said her aunt "was my everything."

"I miss her sitting on the couch," Hofstra said, visibly emotional. "I miss her nagging, joking and fooling around." 

Calling Stockwell her best friend and "100% an angel," Hofstra said her aunt was always willing to do anything for anyone. Hofstra then asked that Dewitt be given the maximum sentence for his crime. She doesn't want him to die, she said, but to suffer half as much as she feels her family has suffered.

Cayuga County Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Susan Azzarelli also read statements from Samantha Stockwell, one of Cynthia's daughters, and two of her younger relatives.

Speaking with ÓÐÁϺÐ×Ó after the sentencing, Hofstra, Samantha and Leslie Hunt, another one of Cynthia's daughters, said she was extremely generous and founds ways to be positive despite bad circumstances. They also said Cynthia had a knack for making friends, and often brought family members together.

"She was the life of this family," Samantha said. 

Azzarelli told the judge Dewitt's actions "shattered the lives of the Stockwell family." Calling the defendant "truly dangerous," she noted his three prior convictions for offenses related to driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, as well as his admission to Auburn police that he smoked marijuana before the January accident and took nitrous oxide while driving.

"His need to get high is more important to him than the safety of everyone in this community," Azzarelli said.

Stockwell, who was attempting to cross the street, looked both ways and "did everything right," the prosecutor said, before lifting her foot from the curb that afternoon.

"There was no way for her to prepare for someone like this defendant," Azzarelli said.

When asked by Leone if there was anything he wanted to say, Dewitt, shaking slightly, responded, "There is no excuse for what I did."

"I made a terrible decision and I think about it every day," he said.

Before announcing the sentence, the judge said Dewitt "did a stupid thing" and said Stockwell "by all accounts was a pretty incredible person." 

"We're supposed to administer justice. There is no justice here," Leone said.

The judge also expressed condolences to the members of Stockwell's family who were in the courtroom.

"The system let you down," he said. "He should have been stopped two DWIs ago, one DWI ago."

When Dewitt becomes eligible for parole in seven years, Leone continued, he wants it noted on the court's record that he does not feel the defendant should be considered for early release.

Dewitt pleaded guilty in May, satisfying the Class D felonies of second-degree vehicular manslaughter and operating a motor vehicle while ability impaired by drugs, plus several traffic infractions.

The Auburn Police Department said he was driving southbound at a high rate of speed when he crossed into the opposite lane and did not stop at a signal.

Stockwell was taken to Auburn Community Hospital after being struck by his vehicle, and died later that day.

The aggravated vehicular homicide charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison, was added after a toxicology report for Dewitt was completed.