Gloversville driver in fatal crash sentenced

Posted at: 09/17/2012 6:19 PM | Updated at: 09/17/2012 6:31 PM
By: Beth Wurtmann

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JOHNSTOWN - Christine Pinkerton described the shock and grief last December, upon learning that her 19-year-old son C.J. Insogna had been killed in a horrific car wreck.

"I screamed for my son, I hit and punched and kicked my husband, repeating over and over, "not my CJ, not my baby!" said Christine Pinkerton, in a Fulton County Courtroom Monday.

That wasn't the only bad news she had to absorb. Her 17-year-old daughter was thrown from the car, paralyzed from the waist down. The driver, CJ's friend, 20-year-old Justin VanNostrand was largely unhurt.

"I have to live with the consequences of my conduct for the rest of my life, for those who suffered and will continue to suffer.

Sheriffs deputies said VanNostrand passed several cars on a country road on December 4, at excessive speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. He lost control, slamming into an embankment off route 29. The Ford Mustang went airborne, hitting the side of a house, landing on its nose.

VanNostrand, pled guilty to manslaughter and reckless endangerment, apologizing in court to the Insogna family.

"I have no memory of the accident and can't rationalize how it happened. I do not ask forgiveness. That would be unfair. I just want everyone to know that I hurt too," he read from a statement.

Pinkerton also read a victim impact statement from Kelsey Insogna, now confined to a wheelchair bound, who said no prison time for VanNostrand would be enough.

"Whatever time the judge sentences you for I feel would never be enough time for the pain you've caused me and my entire family for the loss of CJ and for me being in a wheelchair because whatever time you serve isn't going to change that," read Kelsey's statement.

VanNostrand, who is from Gloversville, will serve two-and-a-third to seven years in prison.

When he gets out, the Insogna's want him to talk to school children about the consequences of reckless driving.