THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994 TAG: 9406210470
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940621 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
Corrie Jaynes just started eating on her own last week. She still lives in the rehabilitation center where she was sent after John Haigh veered his truck across London Bridge Road in a drunken stupor last November.
{REST} The two former West Virginia University students are the living legacy of Haigh's reckless disregard for human life, which led him to drive with an alcohol level twice the legal limit. Allen was 21 and Jaynes 20 when their lives were unexpectedly and tragically altered forever.
Two other students - Brian Raney, 23, and Jason Partilla, 20 - were killed. Their legacy lives on only in the memory of those who loved them, their parents told Circuit Court Judge Alan E. Rosenblatt on Monday.
``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 families gathered in court Monday to ask Rosenblatt to send Haigh to prison for the longest possible time allowable by law.
At the end of the emotionally wrenching hearing, they were satisfied. Rosenblatt sentenced Haigh to the maximum of 21 years: 10 years each for two charges of involuntary manslaughter and 12 months for DUI. He will be eligible for parole in five or six years, prosecutors said.
``We've heard a lot about the pain involved today,'' Rosenblatt told Haigh before sentencing. ``I don't believe I've ever seen a more aggravated case in my time on the bench. There were no mechanical or weather problems to excuse what took place. You just didn't care.''
Rosenblatt thumbed through the three-page criminal record that included 12 arrests for public drunkenness three for driving under the influence.
``You've never cared,'' the judge continued. ```This record of yours. There were things you could have done something about years ago.''
The four students had come to Virginia Beach at the start of Thanksgiving break from West Virginia University.
Partilla of Irwin, Pa., was a senior majoring in landscaping architecture and an officer in the local chapter of Sierra Club. Raney, of Virginia Beach, was majoring in horticulture and dreamed of operating a greenhouse business.
Both boys loved the outdoors. Both were sitting together in the front seat.
Partilla's girlfriend, Corrie Jaynes of Rockville, Md., sat in the back seat.
``Corrie would have become our daughter-in-law,'' Partilla's mother Marlise told the judge. ``But she has no memory of her junior and senior year. She has no memory of that part of her relationship with my son.''
Partilla held her son's landscape drawings with trembling hands on the witness stand. Though her voice shook from time to time, she smiled as she recounted his accomplishments. She spoke with gratitude of her supporting family.
``Thank goodness we can be together and hold on to each other,'' she said. ``But we will never have another completely joyful moment. I don't hate this man. I'd just like to help make sure that no other family has to go through this.''
Robert Jaynes, Corrie's father, told the judge how his youngest daughter had been vivacious and beautiful. ``She's still beautiful,'' he said. ``But she's different. She's changed.''
Head injuries have left his daughter with virtually no short-term memory. She can't remember the contents of one paragraph by the time she finishes the next, he said. She still lives at the head-trauma center near their home in Rockville, Md.
Robert Jaynes, who is retired, is fearful about the future. Doctors tell him his daughter will not be able to achieve independent living for five to 10 years.
``(Haigh) had no insurance. There has been no restitution,'' the gray-haired man said. ``This has wiped out our retirement funds and presents considerable problems for us to face in the future.''
On Monday, Haigh, a drywall hanger, made only a brief statement. ``I'm truly sorry for these people,'' he said.
As the parents gathered, crying and holding each other in the hallway after the sentencing, they said they were sorry, too. Sorry for memories that have no future.
Several quoted a saying: When your parent dies, you lose your past. When your child dies, you lose your future.
``On Nov. 20, 1993, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Haigh took part of my future away from me,'' Deborah Raney said in her victim-impact statement. ``I will never see Brian experience the joys of his first job and his first home. I will never again be hugged by the son I nurtured for 23 years. I will never hold Brian's children, my grandbabies, in my arms. All I have left of Brian is in my heart and until the day I die there will always be the sadness of what could have been.''
{KEYWORDS} DRUNKEN DRIVING SENTENCING DUI FATALITIES INJURIES
by CNB