Thread: 12-year sentence given in DUI death

12-year sentence given in DUI death
By: Bill McKelway
Published: August 16, 2011
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Fatal and injury-laden automobile accidents involving drunken driving are bringing long prison terms in Hanover County and stern warnings from judges who are going far beyond sentencing guidelines.

In a case Monday in which an illegal immigrant had pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and felony maiming in the death of a beloved King William County man, Judge J. Overton Harris of Hanover Circuit Court went nearly four years beyond the high end of the guidelines, sentencing the humbled defendant to 12 years in prison.

"Every time I have been to talk to him, he curls up in a ball and cries," said defense lawyer Michael Clower of Feliciano Aguas Suarez, now 30.

The sentence followed testimony from the family of Casey Ryan Bohr, 23, whose brothers and parents described him as a never-to-be-forgotten joy who was the glue that kept the family whole.

"Half of me is buried with my son," testified Bohr's mother, Bobbie VerLander Bohr, who was severely injured in the Nov. 26 collision last year that overturned the Bohrs' vehicle and threw Casey Bohr from the wreckage.

Bohr, a powerful young man who loved softball and pro wrestling, stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 280 pounds, a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than Aguas Suarez, who described himself through an interpreter Monday as an alcoholic and illegal immigrant.

Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Stephen B. Royalty berated the shaken defendant as a man who has "thumbed his nose" at U.S. immigration laws, the country's traffic laws, its drinking laws and society at large.

Citing previous convictions for being drunk in public, driving without a license and crossing the center line on the same highway, state Route 54, where Bohr died, Royalty pleaded for a sentence that would send a message to lawbreakers and those who drink and drive.

Last week, another Hanover judge sentenced a Henrico County man to five years in prison on convictions for driving under the influence, hit and run, and aggravated maiming. Sentencing guidelines called for a maximum six-month sentence.

In May, Harris sentenced Nicholas R. Sickal, now 21, convicted of DUI-related felony aggravated manslaughter and maiming to eight years and three months in prison, which was the high end of guidelines. Sickal's blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit, while Aguas Suarez registered nearly twice the limit.

Bohr's death sparked outrage, not only because of Aguas Suarez's illegal status but because of his use of an alias, prior traffic convictions dating back to March 2007, and longtime employment in the area, none of which attracted federal immigration officials.

On Monday, in short phrases translated in court to nearly two dozen members of the Bohr family, including a Henrico police officer and a Chesterfield County firefighter, Aguas Suarez asked for forgiveness and cried as he spoke of knowing the pain and suffering of loss. He said his father in Mexico died when he was 7.

"He has told me that he has nothing left to live for, that he wishes it was he who had died, not Casey," Clower, the defense lawyer, said after court.

Bohr's mother refused to sit on the witness stand near Aguas Suarez, she spoke to the court from the jury box on the other side of the courtroom.

She recalled looking back down East Patrick Henry Highway at her son's still body when she finally regained her sense of direction and the couple's car had rolled and tumbled to a stop after Aguas Suarez crossed the road's solid double yellow line.

She said she couldn't fight the impulse the race to her son's side.

"I wanted to lie down beside him and hold his hand and just go to heaven with him, just hold his hand and go with him," she told a courtroom where the only sound other than her voice was sobbing.

And when Royalty asked her about what her life has become, Bohr answered with three words: "A living hell."

bmckelway@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6601

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/stat ... r-1240850/

Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Stephen B. Royalty berated the shaken defendant as a man who has "thumbed his nose" at U.S. immigration laws, the country's traffic laws, its drinking laws and society at large.

Excellent to see someone tell it like it is! NONE of the previous prosecutors had the guts to stand up for Americans and say "ENOUGH!". I hope they never have another good night's sleep, the blood of this poor kid is equally on their hands and the drunken illegal. That's my opinion, and I'll stand by it to the day I die!