Barry J. Tobin drank alcohol, smoked pot and drove like he was in an Xbox game, but there was no reset button after he crashed into Sean Rose's car, killing the Swansea husband and father of two sons, said St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly.
Kelly asked Circuit Judge John Baricevic on Tuesday to sentence Tobin to the maximum -- 14 years -- for aggravated driving under the influence involving a death.
"No one is beyond rehabilitation," said Tobin's lawyer Lydon Evanko. "There are things that happen that change who we are."
Baricevic settled on 10 years, 9 months. Tobin must serve 85 percent -- a little more than 9 years -- before he's eligible for parole.
Sean Rose's family and friends filled every seat in the courtroom gallery during the sentencing hearing. Tobin's friends and family stood among them in a crowded aisle.
They listened as Kelly Rose, the wife of Sean Rose, described witnessing the fatal accident that occurred as she followed her husband home from a holiday party on Dec. 10.
She described seeing Tobin's car traveling at high rate of speed, crossing the center line on St. Clair Avenue near 70th Street in East St. Louis, striking her husband's 2006 Lincoln LS.
The engine block of Tobin's car flew off and struck another car. Police estimate Tobin was traveling more than 100 mph.
Kelly Rose ran to her husband's car and saw him, lifeless and trapped inside his car. She said she saw flames under the car. Kelly Rose said she yelled and stroked her husband's face as he laid on the roadside, then she heard a medical helicopter.
It wasn't for her 33-year-old husband. He was too injured. He died from massive head injuries.
"He was, and still is, my everything," Kelly Rose said as she read from her victim impact statement.
Kelly Rose told Baricevic that she struggles with what to tell her two young sons, now 4 and 7, and how to answer her questions about why their father died.
On a trip to a local hardware store, Kelly Rose said her 4-year-old asked her if a ladder could reach the clouds. When the mother asked why, he told her he could go up and get his father so he could be with them again.
"I pray every day that my boys will turn out just like him -- an honest and loyal man," she said.
At the time of the crash, Tobin was 18 and serving probation for three separate juvenile charges, said Assistant State's Attorney Bill Clay Jr. Those charges included attempted aggravated arson, battery and criminal trespass to property.
Evanko told the judge that the system failed Tobin, now 19, by not forcing him into treatment during those cases, but Baricevic countered that it wasn't clear whether anyone knew that Tobin was using drugs or alcohol at that point.
Then, three months after the crash that killed Sean Rose, Shiloh Police received a call that a driver was tossing beer bottles out of the window of a car. Tobin was a passenger. Shiloh Police Officer Jesse Phillips said he smelled alcohol on Tobin's breath and asked him to take a Breathalyzer.
"Not without my lawyer," Phillips said was Tobin's reply.
Phillips charged Tobin with unlawful consumption of alcohol.
Phillips testified on Tuesday that Tobin was laughing and shouting to his friend at the Shiloh police station. He was later convicted.
Tobin finished high school while in the St. Clair County Jail. Evanko brought him his school work.
When asked to make a statement, Tobin, of Belleville, stood in his orange jail jumpsuit, shackled at the feet.
"I would like to apologize to the Rose family for everything that I put you through," he said. "I want to apologize to my family and the court for putting them through this."
Baricevic noted that Tobin was too young to drink when he got into the driver's seat. He also smoked marijuana. But then, Baricevic said, he kicked it up by driving.
"You elevated it all by choosing to get in the car and elevated it again by driving recklessly," Baricevic said. "I've been doing this since 1978, you set the record for driving the fastest."
No comments:
Post a Comment