From left, Abby Wilson, Ross Lanzo and Debbie Lanzo thank assistant prosecutors Mike Yacovone and Rob Andrews after Michael Malvasi II received 12 years in prison on charges that include aggravated vehicular homicide during sentencing Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — The man sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday was no friend of victim Ryan Lanzo, or Michael Malvasi II would have helped the 23-year-old following a deadly crash instead of leaving the scene and waiting too long to get him medical help, the victim’s mother said in court.

Malvasi was sentenced to two years less than the maximum after he was convicted earlier this month on charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular homicide, two counts of leaving the scene of an accident, one count of tampering with evidence — for tampering with Lanzo’s body, and driving while intoxicated.

Malvasi still awaits trial in a separate drug trafficking case.

Lanzo, 23, of Boardman, was pronounced dead at an Austintown medical facility more than an hour after the 2017 early morning crash on Shields Road in Canfield Township. Witnesses at Malvasi’s trial said he and Lanzo spent time together at two Boardman night spots just prior to the 2:46 a.m. crash.

Malvasi, 30, of Canfield, actually left the scene twice, prosecutors said. He left the scene on foot, returned to the crash scene after getting his own car at home, then loaded Lanzo’s body into that car. He drove Lanzo back to Malvasi’s home, where Malvasi stayed. Lanzo was pronounced dead about 4 a.m. after Malvasi’s father drove Lanzo to an Austintown urgent-care facility.

Lanzo’s mother, Debbie Lanzo, told Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court she has found it upsetting every time someone has described her son as being Malvasi’s “friend.”

“It really made me mad to hear that word associating my son to Michael Malvasi,” she said. Among the definitions of friend are “a person who gives assistance. It’s a person who is close and dear and always there when you need them,” she said.

“Neither of which my son received during the early morning Nov. 18, 2017,” she said. “It sickened me. It is so far from the truth.”

She said that after learning that her son, 23, died in a crash involving Malvasi, “All I could think was, who was this person my son was with? I know all of his friends.”

“Not once in this almost four years (since the crash) did our phone ring; not once was there a knock on our door; not one card sent by this family showing any concern or sympathy for the loss of our son,” she said.

She said Malvasi did not show any remorse at any point during the trial.

“Instead, he chose to doze off many times as though he was bored and didn’t want to be here,” Lanzo said.

Her husband, Raymond Lanzo, died of COVID-19 on April 30, 2020.

“My husband and all of us impatiently waited for our day of trial. But, sadly, he could not be here when it finally happened. However, I know he is finally going to rest in peace since the verdict,” she said. “A piece of our hearts will forever ache.”

Malvasi, who was dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, apologized to the family after Debbie Lanzo spoke.

“I am so sorry. He was my friend,” Malvasi said. “I love and miss him so much. I wasn’t all there. I wanted from the beginning to apologize to the family, but with criminal and civil lawsuits pending, my lawyer told me I should not.

“I didn’t like that advice, but I followed it, so I want to say now how truly sorry I am for what happened that night and what happened to Ryan,” he said.

“I can’t believe how irresponsibly I acted. I can only say besides I’m sorry that I have grown and matured since then. Your honor, I made a lot of bad decisions that evening. I just wasn’t all there.”

The lawsuit, filed by the Lanzo family, has since been settled, according to Mahoning County court records. No details on the settlement are included in court records.

Mike Yacovone, one of the assistant prosecutors who worked on the case, said fatal crashes among young people happen all too frequently, but what Malvasi did after this crash — including at the trial — is what made this case so unusual.

“He gets out. He walks back home, passes up all those houses. Doesn’t make a phone call. Doesn’t do anything but get his own car, drive back to the scene, loads the body in the car, drives home. Leaves the body sit there … for 24 minutes,” Yacovone said.

“And from the start, Mike Malvasi has thought about himself. Throughout the trial, Mike Malvasi thought about himself. He got up in front of the jury, and his statements were about him,” Yacovone said.

Prosecutors never made a plea offer to Malvasi because “I wanted to be able to ask for the maximum sentence under the law,” Yacovone said. “That’s what the state is doing.”

Ryan Lanzo’s brother, Ross Lanzo, told the judge that in the days after the crash, he learned the strange circumstances surrounding it. Though it happened at around 2:46 a.m., his brother was not taken for medical attention until about 4 a.m.

A resident living near the crash site who heard the crash, said it happened at about 2:46 a.m.

Ross Lanzo said the woman from the Cuyahoga County Examiner’s Office who conducted the autopsy testified that his brother probably died within a few minutes after the crash. But “you hear a lot in the medical world about miracles,” he said. “There could have been a miracle, but we will never know after he waited almost an hour, even longer to get (Ryan) to the hospital.”

Though Malvasi has been sentenced in this case, it isn’t expected to be his last day in court.

A Mahoning County grand jury indicted Malvasi in February 2018 on charges of trafficking hashish and hashish possession, a result of an August 2017 raid at Malvasi’s home on Timber Run Drive in Canfield, a couple of months before the crash.

No trial date has been set in that case. If convicted, Malvasi could get about eight more years in prison.

erunyan@vindy.com