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Driver sentenced to 8 years for hit-and-run death of Valley boy

Richard Romo was sentenced this week to 8.75 years in prison for leaving the scene of a crash that killed a 13-year-old boy in Goodyear.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The driver who fatally struck a 13-year-old boy in Goodyear and fled the scene has been sentenced to prison. 

Richard Romo Jr., 45, was sentenced Wednesday to 8.75 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crash that killed Dylan Buensuceso, an eighth-grade student at Estrella Mountain Elementary School.

Buensuceso was riding his bike home from school when he was hit on April 26, 2022 by Romo's car near 182nd and San Gabriel drives, Goodyear police said.

Investigators detained Romo at a residence in the same neighborhood where the crash occurred.

“I am extremely dumbfounded by the fact he stayed a mile away from my house, a mile away from where he murdered my son, and he acted as if nothing happened,” the victim's father said after Romo was caught and arrested.

Court records show Romo was on probation at the time of the crash for a 2018 aggravated DUI conviction. He was sentenced to four months in prison and three years of probation for that offense.

Due to his involvement in the Goodyear crash, Romo was found to have violated the terms of his probation and was given a 2.5-year prison sentence, which runs concurrently with the 8-year sentence.

*Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast.*

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