Family, judge wanted tougher sentence

The Irondequoit woman convicted in the hit and run death of a local social worker was sentenced Monday morning. Judge Franics Affronti handed Vanessa McKinney the maximum sentence he could under the law. She received a two and a third years to seven years maximum in state prision for killing Bertina Forde.

"I'm sorry for her because she's inhuman," said Larry Forde, Bertina's father.

The Forde family walked out of the courtroom with disappointed after Affronti sentenced McKinney.

"I'm hoping the maximum sentence she will serve is seven years," Forde said. "(The sentence) helps, but it's not what I expected."

If not for state law, Affronti said he would have given McKinney a longer sentence in prison. He said she has repeatedly shown a disregard for the law, and she has no respect for people around her throughout the trial. He also took note of her behavior, saying she has been emotionless until today, when she read her first and only apology to the Forde family.

"I'm not the one to judge," Forde said. "If it's sincere, I'll accept it. If it's not sincere, God will take care of that."

"I don't believe the defendent expressed any remorse whatsoever," said Christopher Rodeman, the assistant district attorney. "What little remorse she expressed was at the 11th hour."

Also in the 11th hour, Forde's father spoke to McKinney and the court, reading letters his daughter sent him before her death. And the defense continued to deny McKinney's guilt -- an insult to the court, according to Affronti. Her attorney maintained she panicked and left the scen of the accident out of fear.

"If Miss McKinney would have stayed at the scene," Rodeman said, "It's very possible there would have been nothing more than a traffic violation."

Instead, she will be serving time in prison, while Forde's family pledges to use Bertina as an example in the Rochester community.

"(I'm going) into the schools and assisting and teaching," Forde said. "That's what I will do again because my daughter would want me to do that!"