The 2006 hit-run accident maimed a woman. Her family said the sentence was too light.
MAYS LANDING, N.J. - A postal worker lost both her legs, her eyesight and normal brain function 21/2 years ago when a drunken driver slammed into her, pinning her between her mail truck and his vehicle.
Maureen DePrince's independence was gone. Not long afterward, so was her marriage.
Yesterday, the man who admitted driving while drunk and sleepy before he smashed into her was sentenced in Superior Court to five years in prison, although he could be released sooner for good behavior.
Allen Henry Miller, 31, of Schenectady, N.Y., pleaded guilty in December to aggravated assault and drunken driving in connection with the July 2006 crash in Ventnor.
Miller had been out partying and drinking at nightclubs on July 23. The next morning, he sluggishly got into a car to drive a friend home. His blood alcohol level at the time was 0.083, just above New Jersey's legal definition of drunken driving of 0.08.
"I was getting tired, fatigued," he said. "I should have pulled over, but I didn't. I said to myself, 'I can make it.' "
The crash pinned DePrince, then 38, severing one of her legs; the other had to be amputated at a hospital. The Buena Vista Township resident also lost her eyesight due to shock and severe blood loss.
Miller ran from the scene but was apprehended soon afterward. Authorities say a passing volunteer firefighter spotted DePrince's crumpled, bleeding body and started first aid, probably saving her life.
Before he was sentenced, Miller apologized to DePrince, who sat in a wheelchair surrounded by sobbing family members.
"I never meant for this to happen," he said. "If I could change places with her, yes, I would. I hope one day she forgives me. I'm very sorry. I wish I could change it, but I can't."
A member of the prosecutor's office read a statement on DePrince's behalf just before Miller was sentenced.
"I will never be able to see my loved ones again, never feel the sand on my feet as I walk along the beach, hand in hand with my husband, watching our dog frolic in the water, chasing his stick," DePrince wrote. "My memories are all I have left, but sometimes they appear cloudy due to the brain trauma I suffered.
"How do you go on with your life? I have been robbed of everything I held dear," she wrote. "Now I must face the future knowing that my marriage has failed, and I didn't want to become a burden to my family and everyone I love.
" . . . I hope you never have to feel the pain and suffering I have to endure each day of my life."
The plea agreement Miller reached with prosecutors calls for him to receive credit for the 21/2 years he has spent in jail since the crash. He could be released in about two years.
DePrince's family was infuriated by the sentence.
"Five years in jail, and my daughter's life is totally destroyed," DePrince's father, Joe Buscher, said. "She'll never have some of the things he'll be enjoying in jail. The courts and laws of this state have to do more to make this more of a punishment."
Judge Michael Donio said the crash was "the most horrific" he had ever seen that did not involve a death.
"People who get behind the wheel of an automobile after drinking, they have to know it's like having a gun in your hand," he said. "It could go off."
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