It is now up to a judge to decide what penalty a driver should receive for “recklessly” running over an 84-year-old Niagara-on-the-Lake cyclist who later died.

Richard Alan Moore pleaded guilty last Friday in the July 13, 2023, crash that left Nestor Chemerika severely injured and lying in a ditch on East and West Line.

He died at Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls 12 days later.

It was the second time Moore pleaded guilty to the single count of “reckless operation of a conveyance.”

In an unusual twist, his initial plea, before a different judge in January, was tossed out after a dispute over certain information that should not have been presented to the court.

The driver left the scene, but last week before Superior Court Justice Michael Bordin, Moore admitted he was driving the pickup truck that struck Chemerika.

The St. Catharines court heard that evidence showed Chemerika was riding in the narrow, paved bike lane on East and West Line when he was hit from behind.

On Friday, Moore, now 38, re-entered his plea and later apologized for his actions after his GMC Sierra pickup truck hit Chemerika.

Bordin reserved sentencing in the case and will hand down the penalty later this year. No date for sentencing has been set yet.

Deputy Crown attorney Todd Morris urged him to send Moore to jail for 12 months, while defence lawyer Jeffrey Manishen argued that a two-year sentence of house arrest was more appropriate.

The maximum sentence for such a charge is life in prison.

In an emotional and heart-felt presentation, Chemerika’s daughter, Dennise Falzoi, was on hand to tell the court in-person how the death of her father has affected the family.

The day of the crash “dramatically changed our lives forever,” she said in her victim impact statement.

Her father, a retired GM worker who worked hard to stay fit, was on his daily bike ride along East and West Line, near Niagara Street, not far from his home when he “became a victim of a horrific hit-and-run.”

“There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not tortured, wondering what my dad went through while he was lying in the ditch in agony and bleeding,” Falzoi told the court.

“Will someone see me? Will someone help me? Or is this at the end for me?”

“This is unimaginable for me, his daughter. It’s the unknown that is so unbearable. Seeing my dad in the hospital so helpless and terrified broke my heart.”

“There wasn’t a spot on his body that wasn’t cut, bruised or broken,” she said.

“I can’t imagine and understand how Richard Alan Moore could just drive away and try to hide what he did and continue on with his life like nothing happened. It’s mind boggling.”

Morris also read into the record victim statements from Falzoi’s brother Nestor Jr. and her dad’s older brother Walter.

They both reiterated the deep sense of loss the family felt and the pain that Nestor Sr. endured as a result of the incident.

In arguing for a 12-month jail sentence, Morris repeatedly stated that Moore was reckless in not remaining at the scene or returning to help Chemerika.

Instead, as witnesses and surveillance video unearthed by investigators showed, Moore continued driving toward his home in Niagara Falls.

“We know that (Chemerika) did not die on impact,” Morris said.

“We also know that the accused’s own assistance could have made a difference, especially since he’s a volunteer firefighter.”

Within days of the crash, when police questioned Moore at his home, his truck was still visibly damaged but “it was obvious” that some attempts had been made to repair the vehicle, Morris said in reading an agreed statement of facts.

Asked about the truck, which was parked in the driveway, Moore told police it was registered to his father, Alan.

When officers told Moore they were looking for the vehicle involved in a hit-and-run and asked if he had been on East and West Line on July 13, Moore answered, “I don’t remember.”

He also denied replacing the passenger side mirror.

It was a Thursday evening, not yet dark, when Chemerika was struck, likely between 7:40 and 7:54 p.m., Morris said.

Thursday is fish fry night at the NOTL Legion and police received a tip that Moore was a regular customer there. He worked as a contractor and had clients in NOTL.

On the night Chemerika was hit, Moore, wearing a “volunteer fire department” T-shirt, was captured on video at the Legion buying a pitcher of beer at 7:02 p.m.

However, Morris noted, there was no video showing Moore drinking beer that night.

NOTL fire chief Jay Plato confirmed Moore had been a volunteer with the department but resigned about six years ago.

Video from a home on Niagara Street in NOTL recorded Moore’s pewter-coloured 1999 GMC Sierra pickup travelling toward East and West Line at 7:40 p.m., with no damage to the passenger side of the truck.

Less than 15 minutes later, at 7:54 p.m., video from a home in St. Davids showed Moore’s truck headed toward Niagara Falls. Its passenger side mirror was missing.

Meanwhile, Const. Vincent St. Pierre was on patrol at 8:22 p.m. along East and West Line when he spotted a single black running shoe and some vehicle debris in the middle of the road.

He stopped and found Chemerika in a roadside ditch, barely conscious and badly injured. His badly damaged blue bicycle was nearby, as was a large mirror assembly and other vehicle debris.

Paramedics arrived eight minutes later and the victim was taken first to a local hospital and then airlifted to Hamilton.

The section of East and West Line near where Chemerika was hit has a narrow, paved bicycle lane along the shoulder, Morris noted.

The investigation showed he was riding in the designated bike lane when he was struck.

When members of the Niagara police collision reconstruction unit checked the scene on the night of July 13, they found a “fresh gouge scratch and tire marks in the paved north side shoulder” and determined that’s where the collision occurred.

That collision left Chemerika with a fractured skull and broken left arm, along with numerous other injuries, Morris said.

He was carrying no identification but one of the NOTL firefighters who responded to the call recognized him and knew he lived barely 250 metres away.

Chemerika died on July 25, 2023. Moore was arrested and charged on Oct. 3 following a lengthy investigation.