[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by frozenchief

I remember one kid. He was 21 and had been drinking too much with friends. Young, drunk and male, he was hurtling down an ice-covered road at about 85+ mph and missed where the road turned. He wrapped his car around a phone pole. The car came to rest on the driver’s side so he was on the bottom. His friend was still seat-belted in above him, the blood running onto my client. The pictures were god-awful.

He pled and we went to sentencing and the State was arguing for some sentence and I was arguing for less and victims and family and everybody was in the courtroom crying and moaning and all carrying on. It came time for my client to speak and he sat there quietly for a bit of time. We had discussed how to best address the judge and he went completely off script. I will never forget it.

He said, in essence (it’s been 15+ years since this one but I still remember it): Judge, you have to send me to jail. I get that and I know that and I accept that. And the DA is arguing for a bunch of time and my lawyer is asking for less and (dead guy’s family) is asking for time and my family is asking for less. And I don’t really care. I don’t care how much time you sentence me to because the fact is, I killed my best friend. I’d known him for years. We’d ridden snow machines and ATVs together. We went through High School together. And we talked and thought about our life together and I killed him. I killed him. And nothing you do today will ever take that away. And every night when I sleep, I see him in my dreams, his dead body above me, blood dripping from his head onto me. And I knew he was dead. I knew I’d killed my best friend. And judge, you could put me in prison for the rest of my life or you could let me out tomorrow but nothing will ever take away the fact that I killed my best friend. And no prison you send me to will ever be as hellish as the knowledge that I did.”

When he got done, I think the only dry eye in the courtroom was the DA because he was a heartless son of a bitch. But I think about that case every so often and I think about my other DUI homicides/assaults.rime and that for the rest of his life, that girl’s face will haunt his dreams.

Don't leave me hanging after all of that. What was the sentence?