PORTLAND — A Scarborough man was sentenced today to 18 years in prison for killing another man by intentionally slamming his sport utility vehicle into him, believing at the time that the other man had sexually assaulted his ex-wife.
Roland Villacci, 49, died four days after the Oct. 28, 2009 crash and Timothy Antone was charged at the time with murder.
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Antone, who is 43, pleaded guilty to manslaughter today before Justice Joyce Wheeler. As part of a plea agreement, he received a sentence of 22 years with four years of it suspended. He will be on probation for four years when he is released.
Antone also was ordered to pay the victim compensatiion fund $2,788, which helped cover some of Viillacci’s burial expenses.
Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said that had the case gone to trial, the state would have argued that Antone told his ex-wife he planned to kill Villacci and that he lay in wait for Villacci to leave his apartment at Brookfield Terrace on Auburn Street.
After Antone drove into Villacci, a mechanic and bodybuilder, he abandoned the car and walked away, being arrested a short distance from there. Villacci had multiple broken bones and a brain injury as a result of the crash and died at the hospital, surrounded by his family.
Despite Antone’s threats, the sport utility vehicle was not moving exceptionally fast at the time of the crash and it could have been difficult to convince a jury that Antone was trying to kill Villacci at that point, which would have been necessary for a murder conviction, Marchese said.
Authorities say there was no evidence Elizabeth Antone was sexually assaulted beyond her accusation and Villacci’s roommate had heard her and Villacci laughing and joking that night.
Before the sentence was imposed, members of Villacci’s family told the court that the incident was a tragedy for everyone and laid some of the blame on Elizbeth Antone, who was not at court.
Antone, accompanied by his attorney, Joel Vincent, apologized to Villacci’s family and specifically to his mother.
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