Posted on 07/13/2014 5:30:49 PM PDT by moonshinner_09
( Family's outrage after drunk hit-and-run driver is sentenced to just 120 DAYS in prison for killing man who lost wife and daughter in similar incident )
A drunk driver who killed a 57-year-old motorcyclist when he sped through a red light last year will only have to spend 120 days in prison - a light sentence that has infuriated the victim's already heartbroken family. Ronald O'Kelly, 25, plead guilty to charges of involuntary vehicular manslaughter due to intoxication and fleeing the scene on Friday, in connection with the tragic April 2013 accident that killed Kansas City man Leroy 'Buddy' Bronson. Bronson's death was the third in a family plagued by drunk driving accidents. Three years ago, Bronson's wife Diane and his 11-year-old daughter Anna were killed when a drunk driver going the wrong way on the freeway smashed into their white Ford Explorer. 'This is horrible. This is disgusting. What is our judicial system saying? Drink? Drive? Kill somebody? Run! You're fine,' Bronson's stepson Tyler Bronson told WFSB in court on Friday. O'Kelly did not issue a statement as he left the court room last week. However, in court O'Kelly apologized to the Bronson family and said the man's death was something he will have to live with forever.'Since the accident I have thought about it every day, and there is nothing I can say that will make anything better,' he said. 'I’m super sorry about what happened,' he added. 'I will have to live with it for the rest of my life, just like you guys will.' O'Kelly had spent the night Of April 7, 2013 getting drunk at a tavern, witnesses said, before he ran a red light and crashed into Bronson driving his motorcycle.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
this is one area of law many european countries are far better than us in dealing with harsh sentences. i’m the last guy to tout europe but many of them have far better laws for drunk driving.
The law is an ass.
Wait, who went through the red light? The drunk guy or the motorcyclist?
If the drunk guy went through this sentence is truly and outrage but it seemed like maybe it was the other guy who ran the light and the drunk guy just failed to stop in time.
Too creepy having 2 separate fatal drunk driving accidents in your family. Time to move to Utah.
The drunk guy ran the light.See the last sentence of the post.
Be glad it wasn’t a rich kid getting off for “affluenza” and then getting “counseling” that robs the taxpayers by $30,000 a month.
If the courts do not dispense fair justice, they abrogate their very purpose, which is to prevent blood feuds and revenge killings.
In many times in the US, such legal failure could have resulted in homicide, which failed only because the aggrieved party tried to subcontract their revenge.
Were they instead, to just bide their time, and carry out their revenge personally, it is likely it could have succeeded. Yet such stories seldom make the news, for the obvious reason that they were successful.
We have the best legal system that money can buy.
There was even a movie made about that: The Crossing Guard with Jack Nicholsen. The guy should have gotten 20 years at least, what a sham. How can a Judge do something like that and live with himself?
Money is very good at silencing a conscience....assuming you have one.
Thanks, actually it was very clear at the site.
And then there is this, from the article “this sentence is typical for offenders in Jackson County. According to state corrections records, from 2009 to 2013, eight out of 10 involuntary manslaughter due to intoxication convictions ended in a probation sentence.”
I’m sorry, this is wrong. ESPECIALLY for a person who flees the scene.
Somebody needs to do something about this, don’t know who, or what or why, but I don’t see why people in this County are getting a “drive drunk and kill” free card from their local justice system.
a tragedy.... for all of those who drink and drive DON”T
True, but no amount of money can make up for an eternity in Hell. It is really a bad deal.
Of course. But people like that don’t believe in hell, or simply don’t care.
Wasn’t some kid let off in TX after he killed four people while drunk driving or something? Said he was too rich to jail?
Yeah, they say he suffered affluenza...lol. In the long run nobody gets away with anything.
Other news articles report that the perp, who was driving a pickup truck, ran the red light—not the motorcyclist, who was totally innocent.
The other day a friend and I were discussing what he would do if anyone killed one of his loved ones through reckless conduct, such as drunk driving. His solution was simple: He doesn’t have faith in the criminal justice system to punish criminals. So he would carefully plan and carry out the execution of the perp, through whatever means would maximize the chances that he would not be prosecuted. His opinion was that with careful planning he would likely be able to carry out such a plan. Apparently he has promised his loved ones that he would take such steps, which has brought comfort to the family in a dangerous world.
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