NEW BRUNSWICK A Plainsboro man received a three-year state prison sentence on Monday for a drunken driving crash that killed a back-seat passenger in his vehicle last March.
The penalty was less than the six-year prison term that was part of a plea bargain Rohit Maddineni took in November when he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide.
A spokesman for the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office could not confirm whether the office would appeal the lower sentence.
The accident occurred March 31 when Mr. Maddineni, now 26, hit a utility pole on Dey Road in South Brunswick around 3:41 a.m., authorities said. Pavan Gottumukala, 25, of Edison was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Mr. Maddineni and a 25-year-old female front-seat passenger suffered minor injuries.
Through an investigation, authorities said they learned Mr. Maddineni had been drinking before the accident.
Philip Sean Curran

