Man sentenced in first alcohol/drug crash conviction

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A 43-year old Kane'ohe man became the first person in Hawai'i yesterday to be sentenced for first-degree negligent homicide resulting from driving under the influence of both drugs and alcohol.

Circuit Judge Gail Nakatani sentenced Carl S. Cornelle Jr. to a year in jail, five years' probation and at least 18 months of in-patient drug treatment.

Cornelle pleaded guilty Aug. 14 to negligent homicide charge after the April 1999 traffic death of Arlene Miske, 65, who was killed when Cornelle's truck swerved across the center line on Sand Island Parkway and struck her truck head-on.

Prosecutors said a relatively new law requires a blood sample from someone suspected of causing a traffic collision that results in death or severe injury. Cornelle's blood sample showed signs of alcohol, cocaine, valium and a chemical associated with marijuana in his system at the time of the crash, prosecutors said.

City Deputy Prosecutor David Sandler, who served as special assistant prosecutor, said several other cases are "in the pipeline" in which prosecutors are contending that people who caused serious or fatal traffic collisions were driving under the influence of drugs.

Conviction for an accident that causes death while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol can bring a sentence of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

City Deputy Prosecutor Thomas Koenig asked that Cornelle get the full 10-year-term.

Several of Miske's relatives who attended the sentencing were dismayed with the much shorter, one-year term.

"It's like he gets away with more crime because he has a problem with drugs," said Jacqueline Barker, Miske's daughter. "It's just as if he killed her with drugs."

Barker said the sentence "sends the wrong message to the community."

"He took my mother's life. She's dead. It's the same thing as if he had shot her."

One of Miske's granddaughters, Maryanne Gaudia, called the sentence "a slap on the wrist."

"How many more people have to die before this problem is taken seriously?" she said outside the courtroom after the sentencing.

Nakatani gave Cornelle credit for about seven months he spent in Oahu Community Correctional Center, meaning he will be released for drug rehabilitation in as little as five months.

Sandler said Miske's family might not realize the drug program is an 18-month residential treatment. "If he messes up, if he breaks any rules at all, the judge can revoke his probation and re-sentence him to the full 10-year term," he said.

In eight states other than Hawai'i, any amount of illicit drugs found in a blood sample is evidence enough to bring a conviction for driving under the influence, Sandler said. Such a measure might be submitted to the Legislature in January, he said.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 525-8030.