Driver charged for allegedly leaving scene of deadly 2015 crash in Leominster

LEOMINSTER, Mass. — The family of a teen killed in a 2015 hit-and-run rallied for justice Friday night as a charge against the accused driver was announced.

According to a spokesman for the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office, Connor Hartman of Leominster was charged last week with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.

In November 2015, Frankie Fortuna, 19, was walking on Mechanic St., to a Shell gas station for an overnight shift, when a car struck and killed him.

The driver apparently stopped for some time, before driving away without alerting authorities. The next day, a young man turned himself in to police, claiming he might have hit Fortuna but was unsure. The car believed to be involved in the accident was also impounded.

But more than a year and a half passed without any charges or answers.

Frustrated, Fortuna’s friends and family gathered in Leominster’s Monument Square on Friday. Half-way through the rally, Boston 25 News learned from the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office that a charge had been filed the previous week against Hartman.

Fortuna’s family was upset; they had known the charge of leaving the scene was likely, but had also hoped for a charge of motor vehicle homicide.

“Frankie was my life. We spent every day together that he wasn’t working,” Fortuna’s mother, Marie Fortuna said, in tears. “[Hartman] killed somebody and left them there to die. He left him there to die. [Frankie] took his last breath alone.”

State police reconstruction investigators determined Hartman had not been driving negligently because Fortuna had been wearing dark clothing and headphones, walking in the street at nighttime, a spokesman for the district attorney said.

That stretch of Mechanic Street has no sidewalk, and the area is dimly lit.

“He hit somebody, left him there for seven, eight hours until somebody found him, and kept going, knowing he hit a human being,” Fortuna’s father, Jerry Fortuna said. “That’s wrong.”

While the Fortunas say the charge against Hartman will not bring justice or closure, they hope a future civil suit will.

“This is his niece,” Fortuna’s sister, Tabitha Cardona said, pointing to her three-year-old daughter. “She’s gone a year and a half without him. She’s never going to know her uncle, because this person took him from us.”

Hartman will be arraigned Sept. 20, in Leominster District Court.

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