By JOHN BURNETT Tribune-Herald staff writer ADVERTISING A 53-year-old Puna man was sentenced to five years in prison for a drunken driving collision in April 2010 that seriously injured a 7-week-old boy in the other vehicle. Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A 53-year-old Puna man was sentenced to five years in prison for a drunken driving collision in April 2010 that seriously injured a 7-week-old boy in the other vehicle.
Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara told James Ferguson he was concerned Ferguson “will recidivate” during sentencing Thursday. He also ordered Ferguson to pay more than $20,000 in restitution to the family in the car his pickup truck struck. Ferguson pleaded no contest in December to DUI, three counts of negligent injury and leaving the scene of an accident involving substantial bodily injury.
Ferguson had a blood-alcohol content of 0.275, almost three times the legal threshold for intoxication, when his truck slammed into the back of a disabled car carrying the family of Roseanna Gonzalez on the shoulder of Keaau-Pahoa Road (Highway 130) near Ainaloa Boulevard.
Gonzalez told the court “our lives changed completely” due to the collision. Her son, Ojani Gonzalez-Rivera, who turned 2 on Sunday, suffered a fractured skull.
“We were just waiting to see if my baby was going to live, day by day,” she said afterward. “Every day we were hoping that things would work out good, and it did. Thank God it did. That’s the scary part. We didn’t know if he was going to live or die.”
She said the boy is “doing good” and undergoes weekly therapy.
Rosannae Gonzalez-Rivera, now 9, suffered a broken leg. Her older brother, John “Keoni” Gonzalez-Rivera, sustained cuts.
Gonzalez herself was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion. When she regained consciousness, she was at Hilo Medical Center.
“I didn’t know we were in a car accident until I woke up in CT scan,” she said.
The children’s father, who was under the hood of the car, saw Ferguson’s truck coming and managed to leap out of the way.
Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville argued for the prison term for Ferguson, who had no prior DUI or felony convictions.
“But for the grace of God this would have been a negligent homicide case,” Damerville said. “… He hit a utility pole. He drifted off the road despite the rumble strips that should have alerted someone that he was leaving the roadway. He hit a parked car with the Gonzalez family in it with sufficient force that it threw a 7-week-old child and the car seat all the way into the front of the vehicle. … He then left the scene, ran over and sheared off a fire hydrant and continued on until he finally stopped. … It’s aggravated by the fact that about a year later … he gets a driving without a license charge (and) is convicted of it.”
Deputy Public Defender Melody Parker argued for probation, saying her client “has always been extremely remorseful.”
“He has always been extremely grateful for the intervention that may have been divine that no one was hurt more seriously than they were in this particular case,” Parker said. “He is aware of how serious his actions were … and has always felt extremely badly for the family and the children.”
In a statement to the court, Ferguson said he is “extremely sorry for what happened.”
“I know I made a terrible decision on driving that night,” he said. “I’m very happy that the child is still alive and I’m just sorry.”
Replied Hara: “Mr. Ferguson, the bad decision you made that night was not when you decided to drive. It was when you decided to take the first drink. It was apparent to me that you were in no condition to make any decision to drive.”
Gonzalez said she wishes the sentence “could have been more.”
“My children, they screamed when it happened,” she said. “To me, it was like a dream. It was just weird. You realize something’s happening and it’s something bad. It’s just scary.”
Email John Burnett at
jburnett@hawaiitribune-
herald.com.
