Drunk driver gets maximum sentence in Brewster mother/daughter fatal
By Terence Corcoran • tcorcora@lohud.com • January 13, 2010

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CARMEL — An illegal immigrant who had no license and a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit when he plowed into and killed a Southeast mother and daughter received the maximum sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison today.




Conses Garcia-Zacarias, 35, who has been held at the Putnam County jail since the June 8 fatalities, pleaded guilty in November to two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of Lori Donohue, 37, and her 8-year-old daughter, Kayla. The second-grader and her mother were walking out of the little girl's dance class at Seven Stars School of Performing Arts in Brewster when Garcia-Zacarias mowed them down with a pickup truck.


The act instantly took away half of the Donohue family, leaving Robert Donohue and his 5-year-old son, Christopher, grieving for the wife and mother, sister and daughter they lost.


"Explaining to my 5-year-old son that he can never hug or kiss his mother and sister was the most difficult thing I've ever done," Donohue told the court today.


Friends and family members filled four of the six rows in the Putnam County Courthouse. Lori Donohue's father, John Luhrs, 70, of Bethel, Conn. placed photos of his daughter and granddaughter on the prosecutor's table, looked up at Putnam County Court Judge James Rooney before sitting down and saying, "Your honor: A parent's worse nightmare."
Lori Donohue grew up in Yonkers and rose through the ranks at Dorian Drake International Inc. in Harrison where she worked as a sales manager. Kayla attended John F. Kennedy Elementary School, played softball and swam. She was a Girl Scout and had been collecting cookies to send to the troops in Iraq when she was killed.


Kayla Donohue was pronounced dead at the scene while Lori Donohue was flown to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla where she died.


Their deaths saddened and outraged the community and refocused an ongoing debate about illegal immigration, drinking and driving and the hiring of undocumented workers. Garcia-Zacarias worked on horse farms in Florida and New York and the F-350 Ford pickup truck he was driving that night was registered to Valerie Renihan, a horse trainer who also leased the house on Tonetta Lake Road in Southeast where Garcia-Zacarias and several other men were living.




On June 8, police say Garcia-Zacarias sped down the wrong side of Brewster's Main Street around 6:30 p.m. and barrelled through a T-shaped intersection at routes 6 and 22. The truck crossed the narrow parking area dividing the road from the dance school building and ran over Lori and Kayla Donohue as other horrified parents, children and instructors stood nearby.



Through an interpreter, Garcia-Zacarias expressed remorse today and talked about how his actions have hurt his own family.



"I apologize to the family and I ask forgiveness. It was not my intention and it's something that could happen to any of us," he said. "I ask them to forgive me. I have my two daughters over there who are also suffering because of this."



Garcia-Zacarias will serve his sentences on the two counts of vehicular homicide concurrently, or at the same time, as stipulated by the law, Rooney said today.



"Do not look to me for forgiveness ," Rooney told him in imposing the maximum. "God may grant you mercy, Mr. Zacarias, but this court will not."



Garcia-Zacarias faces deportation to his native Guatemala after serving his time in prison.





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