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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Driver gets 10-year term


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

A tearful Justin Amorin asked families of Gillian Badua and Gavin Watson not to blame his family for what he had done.

DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Gillian Badua

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A high-speed car race that ended in a fatal crash resulted in a 10-year prison sentence yesterday for 24-year-old Justin Amorin.

The 2007 race, through quiet residential streets in Mililani, reached speeds in excess of 100 mph and ended when Amorin lost control of his Volkswagen Jetta and smashed into a roadside tree.

Killed was Gillian Badua, 17, a Mililani High School senior. Another passenger in Amorin's car, Gavin Watson, now 19, received severe head injuries and was in a coma for 41 days after the collision. Watson suffered permanent brain injuries.

Gillian Badua "was a daughter, she was a sister and she was a best friend to many," Deputy Prosecutor Sean Sanada said yesterday.

The prosecutor said Badua "was so excited to get her braces off in two weeks. She was so excited to go to prom in a few months. Like most young girls her age, she had a lot of future aspirations."

But Amorin "took all of that away from her," Sanada said.

Since the accident, Sanada said, Watson and his family have been "trying to salvage and rehabilitate what was left of his broken, fragile body."

"He suffers partial paralysis, his memories often lapse, his cognitive abilities are severely impaired," Sanada said.

Amorin was convicted in a jury trial this year of negligent homicide and assault charges but was acquitted of the most serious charge against him, manslaughter.

During the trial, Sanada said, "the defense had the audacity to claim that the defendant was performing a noble act" by trying to get Gillian home and away from the driver of the other car, Bernard DeCoito Jr.

Amorin only cares about himself, Sanada told Circuit Judge Karen Ahn.

"Instead of bowing his head and giving the grieving families the truth, a sincere apology maybe, the defendant chose instead to concoct a twisted and warped story that is far from the truth in an effort to save himself," Sanada said.

Amorin "dealt Gillian Badua a death sentence and Gavin Watson a life sentence of disability," he said.

"The defendant has demonstrated no remorse and this court should not take pity upon him," he said.

Defense attorney Reginald Minn said his client is a young man with no criminal past who acted perhaps out of immaturity or irresponsibility but who had no intent to harm or kill anyone.

He said Amorin did not apologize or express remorse because he was told by his lawyers not to speak publicly.

"That does not mean that he is callous person or that he has no remorse," Minn said.

"He has to live with the fact that he caused this harm to two of his best friends," Minn continued.

Minn asked for a sentence of either one year or four years in prison.

Amorin told Ahn that he wanted to express remorse from the time of the accident.

"From the moment I woke up in the hospital, the first thing I said was, 'How is Gillian? How is Gavin?' They are my best friends," Amorin said.

He asked the families and friends of the victims not to blame his family for what he had done.

Badua's mother, Michaele, testified at the sentencing, saying Amorin's apology meant nothing to her be "because it's hollow and cold."

She was in the military, deployed to Afghanistan, when her daughter died.

"You took away all my dreams and memories of Jill," she said.

"I am now left with emptiness and sadness. You are such a coward."

Also testifying about the anguish and devastation Amorin caused were Badua's brother and grandmother.

Marcy Ching, Watson's mother, also testified.

"My son is disabled forever," Ching said.

She said a sentence of 10 years in prison would not be enough for Amorin.

"In 10 years he will be able to come out of jail and live a normal life. Not like my son," she said.

Ahn gave Amorin the maximum possible sentence.

The judge imposed back-to-back five year prison terms.

"For the rest of his life he is is going to have to carry this extraordinarily heavy burden" of responsibility for his actions, Ahn said.

The driver of the other car in the race, DeCoito, is scheduled to go to trial in March.