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Barbara Lombardi described her brother N.John Lombardi as somebody who was captivated with serving to others.
After a profitable profession in managing eating places and in overseeing operations on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, N.John grew to become a licensed counselor, devoting his time in latest years to working with personal sufferers and shoppers at substance-abuse remedy facilities all through Palm Beach County.
According to a web-based profile, Lombardi had been the director of Developmental Client Care in West Palm Beach since February of 2017.
Barbara Lombardi stated her brother was returning dwelling from a visit to the grocery retailer and believes that he was making ready to fulfill with a shopper when he was killed in a two-vehicle crash the morning of Sept. 4 close to Delray Beach.
Since her brother’s death, Barbara has adopted the court docket proceedings of Theo James, the person accused of killing N.John. James faces fees that embrace vehicular murder and aggravated fleeing or eluding.
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Florida Highway Patrol investigators say James, 34, of the Central Florida village of Wildwood was trying to flee from a visitors cease in the southbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike when he exited the freeway and ran a visitors mild at Atlantic Avenue and East Tranquility Lake Drive, simply east of the toll street’s exit ramps, putting one other automobile and killing its driver.
FHP didn’t disclose the identify of the one who died, citing a coverage it adopted in 2020 in which the company now not discloses the names of crash victims. However, Barbara Lombardi confirmed that it was her brother who died in the Labor Day weekend wreck.
In a letter to Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, she inspired his workplace to hunt the strongest penalty doable in opposition to James, describing her brother’s death as mindless.
“I hope that Theo James gets the maximum amount of time that the court and the law will allow,” Lombardi stated in an interview. “He took someone’s life.”
Vehicular murder is punishable by as much as 15 years in jail in Florida however may be elevated to as much as 30 years
Under Florida regulation, vehicular murder is a second-degree felony punishable by as much as 15 years in jail. The crime may be enhanced to a first-degree felony carrying as much as 30 years whether it is alleged that an individual failed to present information or render help as required by state regulation.
James has pleaded not responsible to all the Palm Beach County fees and is scheduled to have his subsequent court docket listening to Jan. 17 earlier than Circuit Court Judge Daliah Weiss. During a listening to through Zoom on Jan. 4, Circuit Court Judge Sherri Collins granted a movement from the Palm Beach County Public Defender’s Office to withdraw from the case as James is now represented by a non-public lawyer, Joseph Indelicato of Inverness.
James stays in custody on the Palm Beach County Jail, the place he has been held since his arrest on the day of the crash. Indelicato requested the court docket to scale back James’ bail from the $125,000 set at his first-appearance listening to in September.
Collins didn’t rule on the movement, deferring to the Jan. 17 listening to. An individual who answered a call to Indelicato’s workplace Wednesday morning stated that he was not instantly obtainable for remark.
Barbara Lombardi stated her brother moved from his native New Jersey to Florida greater than 20 years in the past in search of a greater life and higher climate. He labored because the director of operations for the Hard Rock for a few decade earlier than deciding to concentrate on a profession as a trauma therapist specializing in substance abuse counseling. He had graduated from Seton Hall University with a level in medical psychology, his on-line profile stated.
Barbara Lombardi described her brother as a “very loving, caring, good-hearted person” who’s survived by two youngsters and a grandchild.
“He dedicated the last 10 to 12 years of his life to helping others,” she stated. “That’s all he wanted, to help people. He saved a lot of lives.”
Julius Whigham II is a felony justice and public security reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can attain him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and comply with him on Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help assist our work: Subscribe today.
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