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  1. #1
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    4-year prison term for hit-and-run death of child

    4-year prison term for hit-and-run death of child

    AP
    Friday, June 29, 2012

    SANTA ROSA -- At an emotional hearing, a Sonoma County Superior Court judge sentenced a Santa Rosa man this morning to four years in prison for the felony hit-and-run death of a 4-year-old boy in a crosswalk last August.

    Marcos Lopez-Garcia, 23, was also sentenced by Judge Kenneth Gnoss to one year for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence and six months for misdemeanor driving without a license, but will serve those sentences concurrent to the four-year term.

    Garcia pleaded guilty to all three charges in May after striking Christopher "Buddy" Rowe in the crosswalk of West Ninth Street and Rockwell Place in Santa Rosa on Aug. 18, 2011, and then fleeing the scene. Rowe died 13 hours later at Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland.

    Garcia was in the country illegally and will be deported after he serves his term, his attorney Walter Rubenstein said.

    Rowe's bereaved parents, Jim and Michelle Rowe, asked the judge to impose the maximum term of five and a half years that Garcia faced.

    Gnoss acknowledged that as a parent, he would like the stiffer term, but said he already imposed the maximum term for the hit-and-run charge and was bound by rules of the court to impose the concurrent terms.

    At today's sentencing, Jim Rowe called Garcia a coward for fleeing the accident that killed his only son. Both he and Deputy District Attorney Daniel Cohan said Garcia was not sorry for what he did, but was sorry only because he got caught.

    "This was reckless, plain, cold-blooded murder," Rowe said. Garcia was arrested after Santa Rosa police broadcast a description of his car on the police radio frequency following the collision, and Santa Rosa resident Leroy Flach heard it and drove to nearby Finley Park where he thought the driver might have fled.

    Flach told police he saw the driver removing a decal from the rear of the car, and that the man was then picked up by a woman driving a silver Volvo, police Sgt. Rich Celli said.

    Flach followed the Volvo and provided its license plate number to police, who found the car in the 500 block of Sonoma Avenue around 7:50 p.m. on Aug. 18.

    Garcia gave police information that confirmed his involvement in the hit-and-run and he was arrested and booked into Sonoma County Jail. Rowe today recalled his mud-puddle-loving son as "all-boy", but also as a sensitive boy who played with dolls and "had no trouble with (the color) pink."

    He said he expected his son to become a Navy Seal or a police officer dedicated to the safety of others.

    Cohan said Garcia was "blame-shifting" when he claimed the sun was in his eyes that day and that a truck cut him off. If that were true, Garcia should have been driving slower, the prosecutor said.

    Regarding the defense's suggestion that Michelle Rowe should have been closer to her son and holding his hand in the crosswalk, Cohan said that would have resulted in two victims.

    Cohan said Garcia wrote a letter to the court, not to the family, and said it "is missing three key words ... 'I am sorry.'"

    Michelle Rowe recalled the horror of the collision that threw her son 80 feet. She said she prayed for her husband to get to the scene in time to say goodbye to their son.

    "When he did, he asked, 'Is he still alive?' I said, 'Yes, for now,'" she said.

    Michelle Rowe said she held her son in her arms at the hospital and sang the songs she and her husband sang to him when they put him to bed. "I stayed with him and held him in my arms for five hours as he became cold and the coroner came," she said.

    "It is impossible to convey the level of anguish I felt," she told the court.

    Garcia sat with his hands clasped on his forehead and appeared to be wiping away tears after the showing of a video about "Buddy" Rowe's short life.

    Rubenstein said his client "feels absolutely horrible about what happened," and said Garcia always came to tears when he discussed the case with him.

    "He wants a just and fair punishment," Rubenstein told the judge. In pronouncing his sentence, Gnoss noted Garcia had been stopped for driving without a license six days before the collision, and was trying to raise money from friends after it so he could leave the country.

    He said Garcia's behavior showed a "high degree of callousness" and "substantial criminal sophistication."

    Garcia's behavior in effect sentenced the Rowe family to a life-sentence without their son, Gnoss said.

    source: Santa Rosa: Judge gives 4-year prison term for hit-and-run death of child | abc7news.com
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Kiara's Avatar
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    How many more people have to die before something is done about illegal immigration? How many????????

  3. #3
    Senior Member southBronx's Avatar
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    Kiara.
    your 100% right how many more obama has to get out . they should not have a Dr Lic at all . & as for the green
    card that one book . Im so sick of the illegal immigrants they get away with so much . it not right I hope
    the court wake the hell up & stand with The USA
    No amnesty Or Dream act

  4. #4
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    Felony hit and run, 4 years? I see not an iota's difference between this and killing that child with a gun or knife, sentence then could have been possibly 20 years to life. What do our legislators think about when the set these penalties? I have an opinion, they do not want to set stiff penalties for something that may involve themselves. I know one state, and it may not have changed, that vehicular manslaughter was the charge for DWI killing of someone. Sentence maximum, one year. DWI alone should be 4 years sentence.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    An open border and lax enforcement killed this child.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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