Man sentenced for Naugatuck hit-and-run that nearly killed victim

NAUGATUCK, CT (WFSB) – A man who survived after being left to die in the street two years ago is getting some closure.

The man who ran over Brandon Guth with a car and took off was sentenced on Thursday.

Guth has been through the unthinkable. What most of us take for granted is now strenuous, daunting work for Guth.

He can’t walk, bound to a wheelchair. He struggles to talk, suffering from a traumatic brain injury.

It’s been more than 700 days of pain, grief, and anxiety for Guth and his family.

“My brother is clearly disabled for the rest of his life. He can never be the same and my family will never be the same,” said Cassidy Mucherino, his sister.

But Guth is a fighter, facing the man who nearly killed him in July 2022.

Dallas Rodriguez was sentenced Thursday. He’ll spend the next 14 years in prison.

A mountain of surveillance footage and DNA evidence, he has admitted to trying to steal tools out of Guth’s truck outside his Naugatuck home.

Guth heard noises and confronted Rodriguez, who eventually hopped in his getaway car, ran Guth over, then took off.

Guth wiped away tears as his fiancé Nicola asked the judge for the maximum sentence.

“He may have been looking for tools that night but we were all robbed. Everyone had plans for life and everyone’s life has been altered,” said Nicola Frizell.

Outside court, Guth’s brave mother was emotional by her son’s side.

“There’s a lot of struggle and seeing what my family goes through it’s just a lot and of course we all felt he deserved a life sentence which we knew he wouldn’t get that but it’s just a very unfair system,” said Kym Mucherino, Guth’s mother.

Guth needed emergency brain surgery, part of his skull removed. A collapsed lung. A long, torturous hospitalization.

Two months later police arrested Rodriguez, along with his two friends John Santos and Tajay Hunter, who were at the scene.

To Guth’s family 14 years isn’t enough. Mucherino and especially Guth feel they should have been given a life sentence.

“There’s just way too much crime, and people get away with it all the time,” Mucherino said.

Rodriguez’s official sentence was 25 years, but he will be released after 14 unless he gets into trouble while in jail.

There’s also credit for time served so potentially Rodriguez could be released in 12 years.

A GoFundMe was set up to help the family with medical costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-day-our-families-lifes-turned-upside-down?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer