Daughter gets justice for late father, almost 4 years after deadly hit and run

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. - Jacqueline Chalifoux is finally getting justice.   

“It finally came to an end and it’s over,” said Chalifoux.  

On August 4, 2016, her 88-year-old father, Theodore, was driving down the Florida Turnpike when he was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver.  

“My dad lived for five months, suffered for five months.  Broke his neck, back, all his ribs. He was on a feeding tube. I really thought he was going to get better. Prayed he was going to get better,” she said. 

Seeing her father suffering like that, she made it her mission to find the driver and hold him accountable.  Jacqueline started calling the Florida Highway Patrol trooper investigating the case daily, pushing for information. 

“He started looking through films from the exits and found the truck with the damaged from the end,” Jacqueline told FOX 35 News.  But the trooper told her he needed more, he needed that actual emblem from the driver’s silver truck.  “I took it upon myself went out there, walked up the ramp, went past where my dad hit the guardrail and there was the Ford emblem and part of my dad’s window,” she said. 

Then they got lucky.  She says the driver, James Stonic, filed a claim, telling his insurance company that he was the victim of a hit-and-run crash. 

“The guy that hit him waited 18 days. He had his uncle drive him to Ocala. Hitch hiked to Kentucky and called from Kentucky to say his truck was hit in his uncle’s yard,” Jacqueline explained.  “How he nailed himself to being in the vehicle was saying He never gave his keys to anybody. Nobody ever drove his truck.”

With all that, troopers were able to arrest Stonic.  A few months January 1, 2017, Theodore died from the injuries he suffered in the crash.  Troopers upped the charges against Stonic to vehicular homicide.

Finally Tuesday, Jacqueline got what she’s worked so hard for.  Her day in court.  

“One-thousand, two-hundred and thirty-eight days later. A lot of continuances. Four attorneys, he’s been through.  It’s been a long road,” she said.  

She told prosecutors she’d be okay with a plea deal.  When they asked what she would recommend for a sentence, “I said five years. One month for every month my dad suffered.”  

Stonic accepted the deal, giving her closure. 

"I pursued it. I did it for my dad.  I know he’s looking down,” Stonic said.   

She knows her dad would be proud of her for all she did for him.  

“I was told as I left the court yesterday if I didn’t do it, it would have been put in a drawer. Cause hit and runs are not gone after,” Jacqueline said. 

On top of the five-year prison sentence, Stonic will be on parole for 15 years when he gets out of prison.