BALLSTON SPA – With Alex Bleickhardt’s friends and family looking on — and his canine companion who was with him a year ago when he was killed on the Northway — the driver behind the fatality was sentenced to over two decades in state prison, prosecutors said Thursday.
A tow truck driver, Bleickhardt was attending to a disabled box truck on the highway’s shoulder in Wilton on Sept. 15, 2022. Justin P. Rodriguez of Moreau was driving a pickup truck and, failing to move over, he rear-ended the box truck at 76 mph, the impact killing Bleickhardt, authorities said.
Rodriguez, 42, was found guilty in July after a three-week trial of three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter, criminal weapon possession, leaving the scene without reporting property damage, and a violation of the “Move Over Law.”
The sentence by Saratoga County Court Judge James A. Murphy III includes the maximum term of 12½ to 25 years on the aggravated vehicular homicide charge and a 10-year, consecutive, sentence for the weapon conviction. He was sentenced as a second felony offender due to his four previous felony DWI convictions, District Attorney Karen A. Heggen said in a statement.
At sentencing, the judge dismissed the counts of aggravated driving while intoxicated, two DWI counts, driving while impaired by the combined influence of drugs and alcohol, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and reckless driving because they are lesser included offenses of the more serious convictions, and “merge by operation of law,” Heggen noted.
Before the crash, Rodriguez “consumed excessive amounts of alcohol and showed signs of severe intoxication” at a Wilton restaurant and despite pleas from concerned citizens not to drive, he left and drove recklessly through the parking lot, striking curbs and nearly hitting a parked car, the district attorney’s office has said. He sped off, crashed through a metal post and chain barricade. His license had been permanently revoked after the drunken-driving convictions.
While on the Northway he approached the disabled box truck, but made no effort to move over, slow down or avoid the collision, prosecutors said. Blieckhardt, 33, of Pottersville was killed, his pit bull Moose was in the tow truck.
Rodriguez’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.26 percent at the time of the crash. He also had cocaine and cannabis in his system, the district attorney’s office said. Evidence also showed he illegally had a loaded semiautomatic pistol in his vehicle. As a convicted felon, he was prohibited from having a firearm, prosecutors said.
According to the prosecutors’ statement, the victim’s mother, Beth Shropshire-Bruno, told the courtroom, “Justin Rodrigµez killed my son. He robbed Alex’s son of his father. He has yet to shed one obvious tear or show shame for his actions.”
Senior Assistant District Attorney Shawn Lescault said during sentencing, “We hope Alex’s family may find some solace in knowing that justice has been served in this case. For the defendant, tomorrow marks a different realization – the beginning of a 22½-year chapter behind bars.”
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