RYAN A. PASQUINI-PEZZINI
WESTFIELD – A review of court records shows that a city man who was jailed recently after conviction in Hampden County Superior Court on a charge of involuntary manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol began his path to prison – paved with alcohol, driving and assault charges – years earlier.
Ryan A. Pasquini-Pezzini , 27, of 183 Gun Club Road, Westfield, pleaded guilty in Hampden County Superior court to the manslaughter charge and to a charge of leaving the scene of a property damage accident and was sentenced to an 11-12 year term in state prison for the manslaughter charge by Judge Mark D. Mason on Oct. 16.
The charges stem from two vehicular collisions which occurred within minutes of each other Nov. 8, 2016.
Shortly after 7:30 p.m. that evening, Pasquini-Pezzini rammed his vehicle into the rear of another car on Main Street at the intersection with Meadow Street.
Fleeing that accident scene, Pasquini-Pezzini drove east and witnesses reported that he was traveling at a high rate of speed when he approached the traffic light at the intersection with Delmont Avenue. Although he was facing a red light and traffic was crossing Main Street from the shopping center parking lot, Pasquini-Pezzini did not stop and plowed into one of the crossing vehicles.Pasquini-Pezzini’s car struck the driver’s side of a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck operated by David Matyseck, 68, of Westfield. Matyseck was fatally injured.
Officer Bradley White reports that after the second crash Pasquini-Pezzini was slurring his words so badly he was hard to understand and displayed the classic symptoms of alcohol intoxication. When asked how much he had to drink, Pasquini-Pezzini replied “Not enough”.
Although Pasquini-Pezzini’s reckless driving that night was the direct cause which sent him to prison, his journey to get there began much earlier.
Westfield police had been dealing with Pasquini-Pezzini – as a juvenile – for years by 2009 when, at 17, Pasquini-Pezzini had his first appearance in Westfield District Court as an adult.
City police responded to a call for service at his home and found an under-age drinking party. He was found to be in possession of a bag of white powder which he told police the bag was ‘ecstasy’ and was charged with possession of a Class B drug.
He was placed on pretrial probation for six months and ordered to be drug and alcohol free. The charge was subsequently dismissed.
Pasquini-Pezzini was next in court in April, 2010, after he was arrested by city police and was charged with drunk driving, He did not contest the charge which was continued without a finding with probation for one year and eventually dismissed. His license was suspended for 210 days and he was found to be responsible for a charge of operating in the wrong direction on a state highway.
Two years later, in July, 2012, Pasquini-Pezzini was again charged with motor vehicle offenses.
He did not contest a charge of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and that charge was continued without a finding, with probation for three months, and ultimately dismissed. At that time he was found to be responsible for a charge of possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle. He had admitted to the trooper who stopped him that he had been drinking beer.
Two years later, in December of 2014, Pasquini-Pezzini faced assault charges stemming from an incident in which he and a confederate ambushed his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend. The two men reportedly beat the woman’s companion with pipes and kicked him before they fled, taking the woman with them. The woman told police that they beat her before they pushed her from their vehicle.
Again, Pasquini-Pezzini did not contest the assault charges and they were continued without a finding with probation for one year and later dismissed. In that incident, Pasquini-Pezzini pleaded guilty to a charge of malicious damage to a motor vehicle and was placed on probation for one year.
Pasquini-Pezzini’s probation had been completed on Nov. 8 when when he rammed into Matyseck’s pickup truck and killed him. When he is released after completing his 11-12 year term in state prison he will again be on probation.
In addition to his conviction on the manslaughter charge, he was found to be guilty of leaving the scene of a property damage crash and Mason sentenced him to a two year term of probation to begin upon his release from prison.
