SALEM – A judge postponed sentencing for a Saugus woman convicted in a 2010 fatal hit-and-run after the defendant announced she was hiring a new attorney.”I don’t disagree with what you contend is the unfairness to the victim’s family,” Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley said Wednesday, in response to the prosecutor’s objection to a continuance. “But at the same time, I have another set of considerations and that is that the defendant is entitled to the counsel of her choosing.”A jury convicted Steffany Barbanti, 26, of Saugus, on Oct. 3 of fatally hitting Christos Agganis, 81, on Central Street in Saugus on Jan. 28, 2010 and then leaving the scene.Barbanti has been in custody since the verdict.Her sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday in Salem Superior Court. But defense attorney Alfred Farese Jr. told the court he learned Wednesday morning that Barbanti’s family had hired attorney Elliot Weinstein to oversee sentencing.Farese said Weinstein was in another court Wednesday and requested the sentencing be continued to a later date when Weinstein could attend. Farese said he would file a motion to withdraw as counsel once Weinstein filed documentation that he would be Barbanti’s attorney.Barbanti confirmed to Feeley that she wished to switch attorneys.”The Commonwealth is adamantly objecting,” Essex Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Kirshenbaum said. “The family has waited four years for this day. The day of judgment has already passed, day of reckoning is now here.”Feeley said he would agree to continue the sentencing to no later than Nov. 15, when he said Weinstein indicated he was available.But Feeley also recommended all parties try to find an earlier date.Barbanti’s family members declined to comment outside the courtroom. Asked why he had been replaced, Farese said he was “too emotionally close” to the case with having handled it through the verdict.”I think it’s better somebody look at the verdict in a new light,” Farese said.Angelo Agganis, the nephew of the victim, said he was upset the sentencing was delayed. But he said the family had been present throughout the trial and would wait longer.”They can delay it for another month, four weeks; we waited four years for this guilty verdict, and she was found guilty, and she is still locked up,” Agganis said. “I still believe in the justice system and also believe she was guilty; the evidence speaks for itself.”