Campbell May Do Time After All for Amagansett Hit-and-Run, Victim's Family's Attorney Says

Daniel Campbell, who struck and killed 18-year-old Devesh Samtani on Old Stone Highway in Amagansett last year and then fled the scene, may be looking at jail time after all.

According to Benjamin Brafman, a prominent New York City criminal defense attorney retained by the victim’s family in recent days, State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro said during a conference on Thursday, September 22, with the lawyers involved and the defendant, that he was “inclined” to reverse his previously promised sentence of five years of probation with six months of community service in lieu of jail time, to now require some mandatory time behind bars.

That original promise was made by Ambro this past August 5 when Campbell pleaded guilty. It was contingent on Campbell’s staying out of trouble, and on the assumption that there would be no new material presented to the court that would change the judge’s perspective on sentencing.

Brafman said after the court session that Ambro’s change of heart was sparked in part by being presented with Campbell’s driving record. According to Brafman, Campbell, who recently turned 21, “appears to be a driving menace — and now he has killed someone.”

After entering his guilty plea to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving a serious or fatal injury, Campbell admitted, under questioning by prosecuting attorney Ray Varuolo, that, while driving his father’s 2012 Honda Pilot, he had struck and killed Samtani, then drove off, stopping only to let his passengers out. The passengers were friends of his sister, who remained in the Pilot with Campbell.

There were no other charges brought against him, although the family has previously alleged that Campbell was driving recklessly.

The judge’s promise of community service as opposed to jail enraged Samtani’s family, who called for at least some jail time. “He killed a young man and didn’t stop, and that is a serious crime in New York,” Brafman said in an interview with The Press earlier in the week.

The September 22 court date was originally supposed to be for sentencing, but due to the hacking of the Suffolk County’s website and online services, the final presentencing report from the probation department was not available.

Ambro made the promise of no jail time after receiving the Probation Department’s preliminary report. That report, Brafman and Samtani’s family said, lacked input from the parents of the victim. They have repeatedly asked that Campbell serve at least some jail time.

The judge, Brafman said, then received information about the defendant’s driving record.

According to Brafman, just months before the fatal accident on August 10, 2021, which happened at night on a narrow, winding stretch of Old Stone Highway, Campbell had been ticketed for speeding. He also said that in the brief time Campbell has been driving, he has been involved in a head-on collision, and that, just after receiving his driver’s license, it was suspended after he was caught driving an unregistered vehicle without a state inspection sticker.

Edward Burke Jr. of Sag Harbor, Campbell’s attorney, said earlier this week that the head-on collision Brafman was referring to occurred during a snowstorm. He also said he was researching any violations on Campbell’s driving abstract, which appear to have occurred in Westchester County, where Campbell’s family resides.

The family also has a house in Montauk, where they were staying the night of the accident.

Campbell was driving the 2012 Honda Pilot with his sister in the passenger seat. They were going to a teen party on Timber Trail that had exploded across social media. His sister’s friends were there. Campbell left Montauk a little after 10 p.m., according to the statement he made to police.

When they arrived on Timber Lane, they were greeted by a mass of teens, Campbell told police, adding that it looked more like a concert scene than a party. Police were breaking up the party when they arrived.

Teens were milling about the roadway. Campbell’s sister gathered her friends together, about eight in all, and they got into the Pilot. Campbell, uncertain of where he was, began driving away while his sister’s friends discussed where to go next, he told police.

Among those who also showed up, but failed to get into the party, was Samtani and his cousin Kabir Kurani. Samtani, whose family is from Hong Kong, was vacationing with his aunt and uncle and other family members in a house in Sagaponack before starting his first semester at NYU.

With the party dispersing, they began to walk north on Old Stone Highway, single file, backs to traffic, searching for a location where they could get cell service to call an Uber.

At the point on Old Stone Highway where the accident occurred, not only is there no shoulder but, at the edge of the northbound lane, there is a sharp upward slope, making it impossible to step off the roadway.

Kurani said he was walking behind Samtani. He felt a vehicle whoosh by him, Kurani said, which then struck Samtani.

Campbell told police Samtani stepped farther onto the roadway, sticking out his left thumb as if to hitch a ride, when the front passenger side of the Pilot struck him.

Campbell told police he kept driving north after hitting Samtani, before he pulled over, got out, and examined the damage. He told police he had a panic attack and got back behind the wheel, determined to return to Montauk, dropping his sister’s friends off on the way.

According to Brafman, “If two of the girls in Campbell’s car had not gotten out and taken a photo of his license plate, who knows if they would have ever found out the person who was responsible for Mr. Samtani’s death.”

Brafman has handled many celebrity cases, some with East End connections, including P. Diddy and Harvey Weinstein.

Campbell’s next court date is October 25.