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A North Tonawanda man was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in state prison in Erie County Court for a hit-and-run incident in October that killed a mother of seven in the City of Buffalo.
Michael D. Held, 32, of 280 Robert Drive, admitted to killing April M. Smith at 6:15 a.m. Oct. 2 along Broadway on Buffalo’s East Side after striking her with his 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer. Smith was returning home from an all-night card game with friends and family members when she was hit. She died at the scene.
An image of Held’s vehicle was captured on a surveillance camera perched near the Broadway Market that showed him heading westbound down the street just after Smith was killed.
The video was distributed to news outlets while Smith’s family, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda appealed to the public for information on the suspect, leading to an intensive three-week investigation.
An Amherst Police Department investigator was able to track Held after tracing a part used to repair his vehicle to a Town of Wheatfield business.
Held was arrested at his home by Buffalo police in late October and jailed at the Erie County Holding Center on $750,000 bail.
He has several previous felony convictions, none of them related to vehicular incidents.
Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case sentenced Held, while District Attorney Frank A. Sedita said the relatively light sentence was within the perimeters of the law.
Local News
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Michael Held, sentenced to 2-1/3 to 7 years in jail for fatal hit and run in Buffalo.
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