Flame On.
Man charged with another driving death after Bonney Lake incident.
So...back in November of 1999, James Gordon Southard was driving drunk. While driving drunk he caused a car accident that resulted in the death of 37 year old Shawn Fairbanks. At the sentencing, Dorri Fairbanks, wife of the deceased, expressed her concern that it was likely Southard would offend again after serving his 10 year prison sentence.
I'll bet she's not happy that she was right.
Last Saturday, Mr. Southard was driving at 5:30 PM. His car jumped a curb, striking and killing 47-year old Gary Slick, who was just out for a walk. Witnesses reported the truck was swerving before the accident, and officers on the scene found Southard to be 'groggy and disoriented', and in possession of methamphetamine and other drugs.
What an unnecessary loss of a life. The worst part of all this is that when he was sentenced back in 2000, the vehicular homicide was just the straw that broke the camels back...he ended up pleading guilty to 5 Felony Charges, including previous drunken-driving related crashes.
To me, it's not a question of how he is still driving, or even how he is out of jail...it's a question of why the flippin' SOB is still BREATHING!!!!!! More than one Felony Level DUI which could have resulted in a death, and then he finally does kill someone, and gets 10 years!?!?!?!?!?!??! And when he gets out of jail, he gets to drive again?
I try not to be obscene around here, but....FUCK!
I'm mad enough about this as just a miscarriage of justice...but then I think about how 'gun violence is out of control'...and it pushes me to an even higher level of anger. Due to our weak-ass legal system, there is a chance that someone who accidentally committed a homicide while drunk would only be sentenced to 10-years...but he wouldn't be able to legally own a gun again, so why can you still drive a car after a DUI Homicide? Once again, that's not even taking the OTHER felonies into account!
I'm not pleased.
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