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Frustration boils at sentence for drunken driver in fatal accident

Was McGinnis's sentence fair?

Vote Limit: Once per Week

‘I hope you rot in jail,’ judge says to drunk driver in fatal accident case

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By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer Updated 1:57 AM Sunday, March 14, 2010

DAYTON — Antwonne McGinnis struck and killed a 12-year-old boy while driving drunk and got the equivalent of a light tap on the wrist.

“I believe it’s a travesty of justice that this case wasn’t a felony,” acting Dayton Municipal Court Judge Colette Moorman told McGinnis during his March 3 sentencing. “I wish I could sentence you to a hundred years, sir, or the death penalty.”

His actual penalty: two misdemeanor convictions, $2,075 in fines, plus a jail term to run simultaneously with the prison term he is already serving for an unrelated case. The judge couldn’t give him any more time because of the circumstances of the case.

McGinnis had a blood alcohol level of 0.17, twice the legal limit, when he struck and killed DaQuan Sales on June 13. McGinnis was never charged with any of the vehicular homicide charges listed in the Ohio Revised Code. Instead, he pleaded no contest to one count of drunk driving and one count of driving without a license. Both are first-degree misdemeanors, punishable by up to six months in jail.

McGinnis won’t likely serve more jail time for his role in DaQuan’s death. His parole was revoked after the misdemeanor charges were filed, and he is currently serving a two-year stretch at the Southeastern Correctional Institution at Lancaster for two unrelated felonies, one of them a gun charge.

However, state sentencing guidelines state that, in most cases, misdemeanor time cannot be served consecutively to felony time. That means McGinnis’ year in prison for the two misdemeanors will be served at the same time as his prison sentence.

“That’s not good enough,” said DaQuan’s mother Janell Sales. “Not for my child’s life, it’s not.”

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