Crime & Safety
Convicted Hit-and-Run Driver's 12-Year Sentence Upheld
Victims' relatives said Christopher Hoppe in 2008 left their loved ones like animals on Knoll Road.
The conviction of a Parsippany man who killed two men riding a bicycle in 2008 was upheld by an Appellate Division panel Thursday, the Daily Record reported.
Chrisopher J. Hoppe, now 25, is serving 12 years in Burlington County's Garden State Youth Correctional Facility.
In 2009, Hoppe, a Parsippany High School alum who worked as an auto mechanic, entered a guilty plea for two counts of death by auto in the killings of 19-year-old Carmelo Garcia Lopez and Ivan Canuto de la Cruz.
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The two had been riding a bicycle along Knoll Road in Lake Hiawatha when Hoppe reportedly was driving in the wrong lane at a speed nearly 40 mph faster than the posted 25 mph speed limit. After hitting the duo, Hoppe left the scene and allegedly waited nearly five hours before reporting the incident.
The victims, Mexican immigrants, were on their way home from their jobs at the Route 46 Outback Steakhouse. At Hoppe's sentencing, the Daily Record reported, family members said he left their loved ones on the road like animals.
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Thursday’s Appellate Division decision knocked down Hoppe’s previously rejected post-conviction relief motion. Hoppe's attorney had argued that the 12-year sentence was excessive.
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