A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced after a tragic incident where he, under the influence of alcohol, hit and killed an 11-year-old girl with his Jeep. The girl, who was partially deaf, was crossing the street while playing when the accident occurred.

During the sentencing of Jeffrey Glowatski in Allegheny County, Anthony Csizmadia, father of the young victim, Roxanne Bonnoni, made an emotional statement. “God did not decide it was Roxanne’s time to die,” Csizmadia said, as reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He emphasized the preventable nature of the tragedy, calling it a “selfish, careless and completely preventable choice,” and urged for the harshest punishment available. “The dead cannot cry out for justice, so it is the duty of the living to do so,” he added.

Glowatski, aged 65, received a sentence of three to six months in county jail after pleading guilty to the charges stemming from the fatal incident involving Roxanne, which occurred in August 2024. Despite the severity of the accident, the district attorney’s office chose not to charge him with homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence. Instead, he faced three counts of DUI and careless driving, as indicated in online court records.

David Shrager, Glowatski’s attorney, defended the decision, stating to local ABC affiliate WTAE, “People might feel that the sentence is insufficient, but the district attorney’s office acted professionally and based their decisions on the facts and the law. The judge, too, sentenced according to the facts and the law, as required.”

Glowatski confessed to the hit-and-run shortly after leaving the Boots Bar in Brackenridge. Prosecutors revealed that he had been drinking at two different bars on the day of the crash.

Glowatski admitted to hitting Roxanne just moments after he left the Boots Bar in Brackenridge. He drank at two different bars that day before the crash, according to prosecutors.

Roxanne was playing in front of her Harrison Township home on Kuntz Street when Glowatski plowed into her around 7:30 p.m., according to local CBS affiliate KDKA. Glowatski’s criminal complaint, which was obtained by the Tribune-Review, detailed how he began tossing beers back around 2:45 p.m. and didn’t stop until about 7:15 p.m., when he left Boots Bar after allegedly drinking five 12-ounce servings.

The complaint alleged that Glowatski got into his Jeep Patriot and mowed Roxanne down within minutes of departing from the bar. At least one witness saw the crash unfold and approached Glowatski’s vehicle afterward.

“I told him to turn the car off and give me the keys,” Jack Howard told the Tribune-Review. “I didn’t want him to leave.”

According to the complaint, Glowatski spoke to officers who were called to the scene. Police said his speech was slurred and he refused to take sobriety tests.

Additional testing was done through the execution of a search warrant. Glowatski’s blood alcohol level turned out to be nearly double the legal limit — 0.153%, according to police.

“Her father put it best. This was not an accident,” said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski before sentencing Glowatski, per the Tribune-Review.

“This was a choice,” Borkowski said. “The sentence has to reflect the death and the impact on the remaining family members.”

Roxanne was killed two months before her 12th birthday, according to her family. “The future I dreamed for my daughter — her learning, her laughter, her curiosity, and her joy — is gone,” said Roxanne’s mom, Amber Bonnoni, in court on Wednesday. “Her life was full of hope,” Bonnoni added. “Her laughter mattered. Her giggles mattered. Her dreams mattered.”

Csizmadia told the court that there was “not a single day that goes by” that he doesn’t think of her and “the hugs that I will never get to feel again,” per the Tribune-Review.

“The sound of her voice. The way she looked at me,” Csizmadia said. “Since her death, my life has been permanently changed. The pain of losing a child never goes away.”

A family member described on GoFundMe how Csizmadia was home that night of the crash and watched everything unfold.

“Her father … witnessed it happen and rushed to her, picking her up, holding her, and calling for help,” the GoFundMe description said. “This horrible person robbed them of her. The parents and siblings were not even permitted to see or touch her. Only under a sheet to speak and maybe say a prayer.”

Roxanne attended DePaul School and was getting ready to start classes at Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf before she was killed. Her family noted in her obituary how she had “aspirations” of being a cheerleader and soccer player.

“This was a tragic situation and has changed many lives forever,” said defense attorney Frankie Exler, who also represented Glowatski. “And the reality is that two things can be true at the same time; Mr. Glowatski did get behind the wheel of a vehicle and drive that day after drinking, yet this accident was merely that, an accident.”