GUILTY PA - Kyle Smith, 35, killed in hit & run, Bushkill Township, 5 Dec 2015

Pennsylvania State police executed a search warrant Monday for a car believed to be involved in a deadly hit and run in Northampton County.

Authorities said they seized suspected drugs and alcohol from a white 2006 BMW belonging to Collin Cashau.

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Family members of a Northampton County man who died in December after being hit by a car said they are relieved to get a chance at justice.

The driver, Collin Jeffrey Cashau, 23, of Bushkill Township, gave up his right to a preliminary hearing Monday and will face a felony charge of being in an accident involving death in Northampton County Court.

As the family of victim Kyle Smith left the Wind Gap district court Monday following Cashau's appearance, they were emotional.

"We're just glad that after over 10 months we're finally going to get justice for our son, our brother," Smith's mother, Sue Smith, said as she stood amid a half-dozen family members outside the court.

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Collin Jeffrey Cashau, of the 1500 block of Broad Road in Bushkiil Township, is charged in the Dec. 5, 2015, death of 35-year-old Kyle Smith along Belfast Road. The case is scheduled to go to trial June 5, court records say.

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On Friday, in a plea agreement opposed by Smith's family, prosecutors dropped efforts to seek Cashau's imprisonment. The 24-year-old Bushkill Township man instead pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor, and received five years of probation from Judge Michael Koury Jr.

In explaining the plea deal, Pepper said authorities lacked evidence to show Cashau knew or should have known he hit a person as he drove home about 3 a.m. Without that, Pepper said, he could not justify hit-and-run charges, under which Cashau would have faced a mandatory sentence of at least three years in prison.

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Upset members of Smith's family didn't comment. They are pursuing a civil claim and their feelings will come out during that case, Pepper said.

"The family is obviously upset and they're disappointed but at the same time they understand there is only so much the Commonwealth can do with the facts that they have," said the family's civil attorney, Colin Monahan of Lichtman & Associates of Allentown.

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