Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994 TAG: 9406220147
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Circuit Judge Alan E. Rosenblatt sentenced John Haigh to 10 years each for two charges of involuntary manslaughter and 12 months for driving under the influence.
Rosenblatt looked over Haigh's criminal record, which included 12 arrests for public drunkenness. ``You just didn't care,'' he told him.
``I'm truly sorry for these people,'' Haigh said.
Brian Raney, 23, and Jason Partilla, 20, were killed when Haigh veered his truck across a road in a drunken stupor last November. Two others in the car were injured. Haigh's blood-alcohol level was 0.20, twice Virginia's legal limit for operating a motor vehicle, police said.
Families of the students involved in the wreck gathered in court Monday to ask Rosenblatt to send Haigh to prison.
``We're really angry that we're not going to see our son complete his life,'' Jim Raney said. ``You throw your heart and soul into raising your kids. We did our best. Brian was a good son. This should not have happened on a bright clear sunny day. We lost part of our future. Nothing will ever be the same.''
The four students had come to Virginia Beach at the start of Thanksgiving break from West Virginia University.
One of the survivors, Joe Allen, 21, now speaks with a slur. He has lost most of the use of his right arm, and his right leg regularly gives way.
Corrie Jaynes, 20, just started eating on her own last week. She still lives in the rehabilitation center where she was sent after the wreck, her parents said.
Partilla, of Irwin, Pa., was a senior majoring in landscaping architecture. Raney, of Virginia Beach, was majoring in horticulture and dreamed of operating a greenhouse business.
by CNB