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Drunk Driver Kills Cyclist :Link to Story (http://www.ktvu.com/news/13207829/detail.html)
Santa Rosa Drunk Driver Gets 15-To-Life For Death Of Bicyclist
POSTED: 5:22 pm PDT April 26, 2007
SANTA ROSA -- Joseph Elton Lynchard's pattern of drinking and driving caught up with him Thursday in Sonoma County Superior Court.
The 74-year-old Santa Rosa man with seven previous arrests and six convictions for drunk driving was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder of bicyclist Kathryn Black two years ago. He pleaded guilty to the charge in January.
Family members of the deceased 43-year-old Clearlake woman unleashed their anger at Lynchard and told of the grief he had caused them during an emotionally draining two-hour sentencing that included a 31-minute video presentation.
"I have an unrelenting avalanche of disgust for you," said Lynn Darst, Black's mother-in-law.
"You drank. You drove. You murdered. You disgrace life," she said.
Lynchard drank at least seven glasses of wine at his brother's bar in Larkfield in the early afternoon on March 28, 2005 before he left in his Ford F-150 truck.
Black was straddling her bicycle as she rested on the side of Mark West Springs Road when Lynchard's truck drove onto the shoulder and struck her from behind. The impact severed her spine and amputated her brain.
She had left a message on the family's answering machine that she was cycling back to Clearlake and her husband Hugh and his mother Bette-Jean Black were driving to Clearlake to intercept her when they came upon the flares and ambulances and discovered to their horror that Kathryn Black was dead.
"It was like . . . surreal. You don't ever believe that can happen," Bette-Jean Black said in Judge Lawrence Antolini's courtroom this morning.
Lynchard was arrested at the scene. The amount of alcohol in his blood was 0.24 percent, three times the limit that a driver is considered intoxicated.
Lynn Darst told Lynchard his brother, who bought him the truck, and his wife, who paid for auto insurance despite his many DUIs, were criminally negligent and were also responsible for Black's death.
"They have a mangled moral compass," Darst said.
She said Lynchard's family told the bartenders to let Lynchard drink as much as he wanted at the bar and he was "stupid drunk" when he left.
In a letter to the judge, Black's 6-year-old daughter Ashley said, "I am so angry at Joseph Lynchard that I could just throw a cannonball at him.
"I love my mom. I miss my mom. I wish I had magical powers so my mom could be alive again," Ashley Black wrote. "I am angry I never had a chance to say goodbye."
Lynchard's attorney Chris Andrian said he hopes society will learn from the tragedy of drunk driving.
"We have to find ways of dealing with it before it gets to this point," Andrian said.
Lynchard did not speak at the sentencing but Andrian said he understands he is forfeiting his life and accepts the consequences.
Lynchard is not eligible for parole for 15 years. "I look at it as a life sentence," Andrian said.
Antolini consoled Black's family before imposing the sentence, telling Black's daughter, "I hope you will grow up to be like your mother and I think you will."
The judge said he watched the video before the sentencing to determine if it should be shown in its entirety. He allowed it in deference to "the extreme grief of the family."
"I cried and I hurt and I feel like I knew her. It's very obvious the love this family has for one another and for her spirit of life," Antolini said.
But Antolini said "the beast" in this tragedy is alcohol.
"There's only one thing you can do with a beast and that is to restrain it. No one has the right to create such evil," he said.
Santa Rosa Drunk Driver Gets 15-To-Life For Death Of Bicyclist
POSTED: 5:22 pm PDT April 26, 2007
SANTA ROSA -- Joseph Elton Lynchard's pattern of drinking and driving caught up with him Thursday in Sonoma County Superior Court.
The 74-year-old Santa Rosa man with seven previous arrests and six convictions for drunk driving was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder of bicyclist Kathryn Black two years ago. He pleaded guilty to the charge in January.
Family members of the deceased 43-year-old Clearlake woman unleashed their anger at Lynchard and told of the grief he had caused them during an emotionally draining two-hour sentencing that included a 31-minute video presentation.
"I have an unrelenting avalanche of disgust for you," said Lynn Darst, Black's mother-in-law.
"You drank. You drove. You murdered. You disgrace life," she said.
Lynchard drank at least seven glasses of wine at his brother's bar in Larkfield in the early afternoon on March 28, 2005 before he left in his Ford F-150 truck.
Black was straddling her bicycle as she rested on the side of Mark West Springs Road when Lynchard's truck drove onto the shoulder and struck her from behind. The impact severed her spine and amputated her brain.
She had left a message on the family's answering machine that she was cycling back to Clearlake and her husband Hugh and his mother Bette-Jean Black were driving to Clearlake to intercept her when they came upon the flares and ambulances and discovered to their horror that Kathryn Black was dead.
"It was like . . . surreal. You don't ever believe that can happen," Bette-Jean Black said in Judge Lawrence Antolini's courtroom this morning.
Lynchard was arrested at the scene. The amount of alcohol in his blood was 0.24 percent, three times the limit that a driver is considered intoxicated.
Lynn Darst told Lynchard his brother, who bought him the truck, and his wife, who paid for auto insurance despite his many DUIs, were criminally negligent and were also responsible for Black's death.
"They have a mangled moral compass," Darst said.
She said Lynchard's family told the bartenders to let Lynchard drink as much as he wanted at the bar and he was "stupid drunk" when he left.
In a letter to the judge, Black's 6-year-old daughter Ashley said, "I am so angry at Joseph Lynchard that I could just throw a cannonball at him.
"I love my mom. I miss my mom. I wish I had magical powers so my mom could be alive again," Ashley Black wrote. "I am angry I never had a chance to say goodbye."
Lynchard's attorney Chris Andrian said he hopes society will learn from the tragedy of drunk driving.
"We have to find ways of dealing with it before it gets to this point," Andrian said.
Lynchard did not speak at the sentencing but Andrian said he understands he is forfeiting his life and accepts the consequences.
Lynchard is not eligible for parole for 15 years. "I look at it as a life sentence," Andrian said.
Antolini consoled Black's family before imposing the sentence, telling Black's daughter, "I hope you will grow up to be like your mother and I think you will."
The judge said he watched the video before the sentencing to determine if it should be shown in its entirety. He allowed it in deference to "the extreme grief of the family."
"I cried and I hurt and I feel like I knew her. It's very obvious the love this family has for one another and for her spirit of life," Antolini said.
But Antolini said "the beast" in this tragedy is alcohol.
"There's only one thing you can do with a beast and that is to restrain it. No one has the right to create such evil," he said.