Thread: NC-Illegal immigrant to serve 16 months max in DWI death

Illegal immigrant to serve 16 months max in DWI death
Posted: Sep 23, 2010 10:29 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 24, 2010 9:04 AM CDT
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CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - An illegal immigrant who avoided justice for six years will serve no more than 16 months in jail for killing a man while driving drunk.

Jovany Morales pled guilty to DWI and involuntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal Thursday.

He was sentenced to 12 months on the DWI and 12 to 16 months on the involuntary manslaughter. But he can serve both sentences at the same time. Add in the time he's served since a May 31st arrest, and he could be out by late next spring.

Morales was driving drunk in 2004 when he hit Buddy Cline head-on and killed him on North Tryon Street in Charlotte. Cline was near the end of his daily commute from Albemarle to Charlotte, where he worked for Norfolk Southern Railroad.

After posting an $18,000 bond, Morales did not show up for several court dates and was not heard from again until the arrest in late May of this year, when he was charged with assault and communicating threats.

He apparently used a different name when arrested, but authorities realized through fingerprints that he was the same man who had disappeared in 2004.

"He posted bond and that was it for six years," said Angela Cline, Buddy Cline's widow. "They say that he was in Charlotte the whole time."

Cline says she's upset that Morales only got 12-16 months for involuntary manslaughter. She feels the penalties for DWI need to be stronger.

Add in the fact that Morales is an illegal immigrant and was not given any extra time for avoiding justice for six years, and Cline says she's very upset.

"It makes me angry, but it also just frustrates me, because what can I do about it?" Cline said.

Cline's daughter Alyssa is now six and was born just weeks after her father's death. She never got to know him at all, while her brother Dalton lost his dad when he was three.

"He was the best husband and father any woman could want," Angela said of Buddy. "That's all he wanted out of life was to have a good job, to provide for his family, and to be a good daddy."

Morales is supposed to be deported back to Guatemala when he's done serving his sentence.

The 287g program -- which identifies illegal immigrants who are arrested -- did not exist in Mecklenburg County when Morales was originally arrested. It started about a year later.

Cline believes Morales would never have been able to disappear for six years if it had existed.

Cline says Morales expressed what she feels was genuine remorse in the courtroom on Thursday. She says despite all he's done and the sentence she feels is too light, she is forgiving him.

"I can't go on with my life and find peace if I'm full of hatred," she said. "I just can't do it. I've had the hatred for six years, I've carried it for that long, and I believe it's time to let it go, for me to move forward. And move forward with my kids -- I have to. So yeah, I do forgive him."


http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13209714

And an american citizen would get 14 yrs.

why is this person's sentence so small?
how can a judge determine that a persons life is only 16 months in jail?

Because coming into American and killing and harming US citizens is what the powers that be want illegals here to do to us.

W

Well he is gonna be deported. I am sure he wont come back.

Guatemala throws a fit and wants to sue the U.S. for the death of Jaminez Xum but doesn't say anything about their citizens killing Americans.

American child lost their father to an illegal alien.