A Sonoma County judge has recalled the sentence of a Forestville woman sent to prison for 13 years for a fatal drunken-driving crash that killed a Rohnert Park mother of five.
It's the second time in the past year that a Superior Court judge has said he would reconsider his punishment for an intoxicated driver in a manslaughter case.
This time, Judge Arthur Wick granted a motion from 56-year-old Judy Shafer that suspends her incarceration at a women's prison in Chowchilla, brings her back to Sonoma County and allows her lawyer to argue for a reduced sentence.
Attorney Jamie Thistlethwaite contends in court documents that 13 years for the Sept. 14, 2009 crash that killed Kathy O'Daniel, 54, and injured her daughter is nearly four times longer than sentences in similar crashes.
She cited statistics from the state prison system that show the average time served by people convicted of vehicular manslaughter in 2008 was about 3 years. The soonest Shafer would be eligible for parole would be after about 11-1/2 years, Thistlethwaite said.
"I think it's disproportionate to other sentences, not only in Sonoma County but around the state," Thistlethwaite said.
Wick granted the motion Monday and scheduled arguments and a resentencing for Oct. 6.
By law, he can uphold the sentence meted out May 14 or reduce it, but he cannot make it longer. State law says any sentence can be recalled within 120 days with a judge's approval.
The victim's husband, Chuck O'Daniel, said the prospect of a lighter sentence for the person who killed his wife and injured his daughter was a "huge disappointment for the family."
O'Daniel said the initial sentence was appropriate and sent a message to those who drink and drive that the court system would not tolerate their behavior.
"To lower the sentence would be a disservice and dishonor to me and the people who loved Kathy so much," said O'Daniel, who marked the first anniversary of his wife's death on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Shafer had a 0.19 percent blood-alcohol level and was high on prescription drugs when she got behind the wheel of her Jeep Cherokee and drove through rural west Santa Rosa. On a stretch of Llano Road, she swerved across the double-yellow line and crashed head-on into a Honda Civic driven by O'Daniel.
O'Daniel had been driving her daughter home from volleyball practice at Analy High. She died at the scene. Kelcee O'Daniel was hospitalized with a hand injury and lacerated spleen.
In February, Shafer pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and two other felonies. Wick handed down the maximum sentence, ignoring Thistlethwaite's bid for a sentence of nine years.
In a previous case in October, Judge Ken Gnoss said he would revisit a 12-year sentence he imposed on the son of a Central Valley prosecutor who killed one man and left another in a coma in a DUI case.
Acting on his own motion, Gnoss cut nine years off the sentence for Dylan Morse, then 19, of Merced after some said the punishment was too harsh and statewide sentencing statistics similar to those presented in the Shafer case were presented by attorneys.
The sentence reduction in that case brought condemnation from Michael Ruiz, the father of 22-year-old art student Alex Ruiz, who died in the Feb. 14, 2009 crash.
He said following the reduction, "I believe that this extreme sentence reduction will make it more difficult for (Morse) to comprehend the magnitude of his crimes and that it will, therefore, likely be even more of a struggle for him to live to his full potential," said Ruiz, a Calistoga home builder.
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