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Teen Re-Sentenced For Deadly Crash

SCRANTON — A man was sentenced to two crimes Wednesday in Lackawanna County. One of them was a crash that killed a 2-year-old child. David Ranakoski was a...

SCRANTON -- A man was sentenced to two crimes Wednesday in Lackawanna County.

One of them was a crash that killed a 2-year-old child.

David Ranakoski was already done serving his time for the crash that killed the child back in 2011, but the Lackawanna County judge decided to re-sentence him on that same homicide by motor vehicle charge.

In March of 2012, David Ranakoski was sentenced for that deadly crash that killed 22-month-old Cole Hazleton.

Ranakoski received a one to two year sentence and was later released early on parole. That sentence angered baby Cole's family at the time. Now, Ranakoski is headed to state prison for that crash all because of something he did while out on parole in 2013.

It's been about two and half years since state police made the arrest of Ranakoski. The case has been closed on a crash that many people in Lackawanna County won't soon forget.

The crash near Clarks Summit killed 22-month-old Cole Hazleton of Scranton when his parents had stopped alongside the road in Ransom Township.

Ranakoski admitted to being under the influence of marijuana when he hit their SUV killing Cole who was trapped inside.

A judge brought the details of that crash up again when Ranakoski was back in court on Wednesday. He was being sentenced on a 2013 incident when he nearly hit a railroad officer with his ATV in west Scranton.

The same judge that handed down Ranakoski's sentence in 2012 sentenced Ranakoski to one to two years in prison for the ATV incident. He was then re-sentenced for the deadly crash adding another one to two years to his state prison time.

"We would have hoped that with the sentence that Judge Geroulo imposed, he would have learned his lesson, but obviously he did not learn his lesson," said Lackawanna County A.D.A Bob Klein.

Klein says Ranakoski didn't take advantage of the sentence he got the first time around and showed disrespect for the law and his victim when he violated parole in 2013.

"You wouldn't expect it in a case like this, when you take a young child's life, you think that they would stay away from any bad conduct with a vehicle."

After the sentencing, Ranakoski was taken back to the Lackawanna County Prison. Eventually he will be sent to state prison to serve out the rest of his two to four year term.

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