Driver Sentenced in Hit-Run of RPV Man

The San Diego woman who pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run in the March death of former Rancho Palos Verdes resident Sho Funai, 23, in San Diego County was sentenced Friday to a year in county jail, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported over the weekend.

Nikolette Kirstina Gallo, 19, was also sentenced to five years' probation, the newspaper reported.

"You are going to jail because you fled the scene," said San Diego Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring when he imposed the sentence. "I want the public to know that if you flee the scene of an accident, you will receive custody."

The sentence came after an emotional, two-day hearing that featured family and friends asking Moring to impose the maximum sentence of four years.

"My son is not road kill," Kazue Funai told the judge at the hearing.

Funai, a graduate student at UC San Diego, was walking to his San Diego residence from a party March 11 along Interstate 8 when Gallo hit him, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said at the time.

Gallo originally told investigators that she hit what she thought was a discarded sofa while on her way home from dropping off a friend, said CHP public affairs Officer Art Athans. Though she was not tested for alcohol, she told investigators she had been smoking marijuana and drinking vodka before she drove home.

• Full story: Fatal Hit-Run Driver Gets 1 Year in Jail [San Diego Union-Tribune]