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Kenneth City Man Gets Prison For Hit-And-Run DUI

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 30, 2008

Updated: 01/29/2008 10:23 pm

CLEARWATER - A Kenneth City man has been sentenced to five years in prison after he was found guilty of hitting a bicyclist with his sport utility vehicle while drunk and driving off after the collision.

According to court documents, Richard Abramowicz, 26, pleaded no contest to driving under the influence-manslaughter and to leaving the scene of a crash involving a death. His five-year prison sentence, imposed Friday, is to be followed by 10 years of probation, court records say.

On Oct. 6, 2006, at about 10 p.m., Abramowicz was driving a Ford Explorer on Pasadena Avenue just north of Central Avenue in St. Petersburg when he struck bicyclist Horacio Barrera, 39, according to police and court documents.

Despite heavy damage to the Explorer's front end, including a smashed windshield, Abramowicz kept driving on Pasadena Avenue and onto 66th Street, court records say.

Sparks flew out from under the Explorer while it dragged something caught on the undercarriage, the documents say. Another motorist, Rafael Quesada, 48, spotted the Explorer as it passed on his right, saw the sparks and decided to follow as it traveled at a high rate of speed and weaved in and out of traffic, according to police.

On 66th Street, one of Barrera's shoes dropped from the Explorer, and later one of Barrera's feet, which had been severed, police documents say. Quesada followed the Explorer until it reached its destination at 5156 61st Lane N. and called 911.

Abramowicz told authorities he had been bowling in a league at Ten Pin Lanes, which is just south of where the Explorer killed Barrera, and that he had three to four bottles of Budweiser Light, court and police documents say. He said he thought he had hit a curb with the SUV.

Ten Pin Lanes is also where Abramowicz worked at the time, and police suspected he had been drinking all afternoon, police and court documents show. But the co-owner of the bowling alley refused to give investigators receipts showing how much Abramowicz had consumed, police documents say.

An arrest affidavit says Abramowicz's blood-alcohol level was, at varying times after the collision, 0.186 to 0.191 and 0.171 to 0.175 - more than double the 0.08 threshold at which a driver in Florida is presumed intoxicated.

Barrera worked at O Bistro, an eatery not far from where he was killed, and he had left less than an hour before the wreck, police documents say. He bought three small bottles of tequila at a nearby liquor store after leaving work. His blood-alcohol level at the time of the wreck was 0.410, more than five times the legal limit.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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