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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, August 6, 2002

Drunk driver sentenced to 20 years in prison

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

A Kona Circuit Court judge yesterday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for killing a California tourist in a drunk-driving crash in February in Kailua, Kona.

Judge Ronald Ibarra sentenced Stephen St. Clair, 40, to the maximum penalty under Hawai'i law for a manslaughter conviction. Ibarra had the option of sentencing St. Clair to probation and up to a year in jail.

On Feb. 23, a van driven by St. Clair crushed Jane O'Brien, 58, of Santa Barbara, Calif., against a rock wall as she stood on the shoulder of Ali'i Drive outside the historic Hale Halawai O Holualoa Church.

St. Clair's blood-alcohol level was 0.21 percent; the legal standard is 0.08 percent. During his trial he testified that before the crash he drank two 24-ounce bottles of beer and most of a 12-pack at Holualoa Beach Park. A jury convicted St. Clair in June of manslaughter, drunken driving, second-degree reckless endangering and not having insurance.

O'Brien's companion, Daniel Botkin, 64, yesterday said he was satisfied with the 20-year sentence.

"While it doesn't replace Jane, it takes a death that was otherwise meaningless or useless and makes some meaning of it," said Botkin, a biology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. "It will tell people that you have to pay the consequences when you get drunk."

Botkin said he and O'Brien's family plan to fly to Hawai'i for St. Clair's parole hearing, which will take place within six months.

St. Clair's lawyer, Michael McPherson, yesterday said he plans to appeal, saying his client was convicted on the wrong charge. McPherson said St. Clair should have been found guilty on a lesser charge of first-degree negligent homicide because he was not aware of the risk he presented to the public and to O'Brien. McPherson also said evidence of a prior traffic accident in which his client was drunk should not have been allowed in court because it was prejudicial.

St. Clair also received a five-year driver's license suspension and 30 days in jail on the drunken driving charge, a $500 fine for having no insurance and must undergo standard DUI penalties, including an alcohol assessment, said deputy prosecutor Linda Walton.