LITTLE ROCK — A Monticello man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for the death of a 75-year-old Mabelvale man in a drunken-driving accident.
The sentence was handed down after a judge heard testimony that the defendant had been caught driving while intoxicated four months after the accident.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims also imposed a 10-year suspended sentence on Brian Keith McDaniel, 32, formerly of Benton, on condition that he reimburse the family of the man he killed about $9,200 in funeral costs and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least three times a week once he is released from prison. He can qualify for parole after serving 20 months.
McDaniel pleaded guilty last month to negligent homicide, a Class B felony, and child endangerment, a Class D felony, for the September 2010 accident that killed Neil Melton on Interstate 30 near the Saline County line. McDaniel’s passenger, his 2-year-old son, suffered a minor head injury in the crash, while McDaniel received a broken nose and had some teeth knocked out.
Prosecutors had asked for a 20-year sentence, while Mc-Daniel sought probation.
Melton was westbound on the highway when he was rear-ended by McDaniel, causing Melton’s vehicle to roll over into a ditch. Arkansas State Police estimated McDaniel had been driving as fast as 98 mph, although the defense questioned investigators’ calculations. Blood testing showed McDaniel’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.24 — three times the 0.08 legal limit — while the defense pointed out that McDaniel registered 0.11 in a roadside breath test.
Melton was about a week away from retiring from a job in elevator construction, his widow, Virginia Melton, 70, told the judge.
He had retired before, but had gone back to work so he could contribute to his grandsons’ college fund, she testified, saying his loss after 44 years of marriage had devastated her emotionally and financially.
“I struggle to make ends meet,” she told the judge, saying she was considering getting a job. “But who’s going to hire me?”
One daughter, Paula Melton, described for the judge what it was like to claim her father’s wallet from the coroner’s office and go to the crash site to recover some of his belongings that had been left behind. She called McDaniel an “irresponsibly selfish individual.”
“This was not an accident,” she said. “This was a death that was easily avoidable.”
Melton’s other daughter, Valera McDaniel (no relation to the defendant), said she was comforted by her father’s strong commitment to his Christian faith. She said he was a doting grandfather to her sons who called him “Paw Paw.”
Brian McDaniel said he was sorry for the crash and the damage he has done. He said he’s haunted by nightmares of Melton’s death.
“I’d like apologize to the Melton family, my wife and the court,” he said. “If I could change places with him, I would. I’m just very sorry, very sorry.”
McDaniel said he was driving his son home from day care and had leaned down to pick the boy’s cup off the floorboard when he hit Melton’s vehicle.
He testified he has changed his life since the accident, but admitted he had been slow to admit the extent of his alcohol problem.
McDaniel testified he hid his alcoholism from his wife. He said he did not seek treatment until he hit “rock bottom” with his January 2011 arrest for driving while intoxicated. He said he got drunk after learning he was about to be arrested for negligent homicide.
He said he hasn’t had a drink since that arrest and has completed inpatient and outpatient alcohol-treatment programs, telling the judge he and his family moved to Monticello to avoid temptations in Benton.
But deputy prosecutor Tonia Acker questioned Mc-Daniel’s sincerity, since killing someone and injuring his own child apparently had not been enough to move Mc-Daniel to seek treatment.
“Something happening to you was your rock bottom?” she asked. “The fact you took a man from his wife, family and friends was not rock bottom?”
Acker also disputed Mc-Daniel’s claim he’d only consumed one 32-ounce bottle of beer before the crash when police had found several beer bottles in his wrecked truck. He said those had been left over from weekend tailgating.
McDaniel’s wife, an administrative judge for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, evoked her experiences ruling on childabuse cases in asking Sims to decide on a sentence. Sheila McDaniel testified that she thought lengthy probation, coupled with an order to volunteer with alcohol-awareness groups, would be a more suitable penalty.
“He’s shown his rehabilitation,” she said. “Prison is not going to bring Mr. Melton back. Prison is not going to help us with our financial hardships.”
Probation also would allow the judge to monitor Brian McDaniel and make sure he was living a law-abiding life that would honor the Melton family, defense attorney Jim Phillips said.
“He’s a nice young man,” Phillips said. “You could have him under your thumb for the next 10 years.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/22/2012