How can we stop American citizens from being killed every day by illegal drivers?
Teen sentenced for fatal accidentBy PEDRO OLIVEIRA JR. ( Contact ) Friday, Jan. 22, 2010
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Donovan Espinosa
ELKHORN — The Milwaukee teen accused of smoking marijuana hours before a car crash that killed a Delavan man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.
“The public certainly has the right to be safe from stoned punks driving around in early morning hours in a stolen car, high, carrying drugs, carrying a weapon, with no driving training, no insurance, no license, no nothing,” Walworth County Judge Michael Gibbs said.
Donovan N. Espinosa, 18, pleaded guilty in September to homicide while driving under the influence of a controlled substance. Charges of possession of marijuana and carrying a concealed weapon were dismissed but read in.
Gibbs also sentenced Espinosa to 10 years extended supervision and treatment. The judge said the sentence was not just about punishing Espinosa but also making others realize they will be punished for driving under the influence.
The sentencing reading was followed by emotional responses from friends and family members on both sides of the courtroom.
The victim’s family exploded in applause.
Espinosa’s mother cried hysterically.
At the time of the crash, Espinosa was southbound on Bowers Road when he failed to stop at the stop sign at Highway 11. His vehicle smashed into the driver’s side of a pickup truck at about 3:45 a.m. March 10, according to police reports.
The driver of the pickup truck, Dean A. Schumacher, 41, of Delavan was pronounced dead at the scene.
Espinosa told police he had smoked marijuana about six hours before the crash, according to the criminal complaint. Police found a bag of marijuana in his pants pocket and a homemade knife in his backpack, according to the complaint.
Espinosa is an illegal alien with no driver’s license.
Defense Attorney Christopher Kuehn asked for three to four years of prison.
District Attorney Phil Koss said Espinosa showed no remorse and didn’t seem to understand the seriousness of his crime.
Espinosa told the victim’s family he was sorry.
But during pre-sentence evaluations, he often laughed and seemed to not understand his fault in the crime, according to reports read in court Thursday. He maintained it was just an accident.
“It wasn’t an accident. It was a homicide,” Gibbs said. “This isn’t something that just occurred. This was you.
“You entered the life of Dean Schumacher. He didn’t deserve it. He wasn’t doing anything to deserve it. He wasn’t doing anything at all. He was going to work to support his family. He was contributing to society. You contribute nothing. Zero.”
After sentencing, Koss said it doesn’t bring Schumacher back, but “it’s clearly the appropriate sentence given.”
“It was so tragic, sad, this whole thing is,” he said. “Hopefully, it deters others, lets them know that they’re going to pay a price for their actions.”
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- Do you think 17 months is enough time for illegal charged in hit & run killing toddler?
- H.R. 17: Citizens’ Self-Defense Act of 2009?
- Do U agree with this illegal being arrested & now claims are illegals will fear reporting a crime?
All the supporters of illegals have continued to state nobody from Mexico ever uses drugs here, zero, does not happen,they supply but they do not use the drugs, its always everybody else who does.I doubt they care at all, in their world , he is not illegal, just another person.The supporters are all about human rights only when it pertains to illegals, otherwise at this point they are more concern about the illegal than, they are the loss of another life..
Get them before they get you ? Yea, get them out of our country, put the military on the borders. Make everyone use the gates, port of enter. or get shot. Stop being nice to all those that enter illegally.
Well according to our great Leaders in Washington Illegals are only doing the jobs Americans don’t want.
They are not causing any harm.
WHAT A BUNCH OF CROCK MADE UP BY THESE BUNCH OF CRACKPOTS!!!!!!!!!!
3 to 4 years is not enough time to pay for that crime. my prayers goes out to the family. the only way to get illegals out is if we united states citizens take it in our own hands. it’s plain to see our govt cares nothing about this country and the growth of it. they want rubbish here.
Same way we can stop them from being killed by legals, citizens , and native Americans
You don’t need to be an illegal to kill somebody. Remember Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh, the son of Sam, or Ted Bundy. Deport them as well