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By Sophia Voravong
With credit for good behavior, a Lafayette man who had marijuana in his system when he struck and killed Cheryl Sprowl's father, Robert Liphard, in an August 2006 crash on Lilly Road could spend just a few years in prison.
But Sprowl is comforted by knowing that penalties will soon be stiffened for impaired drivers arrested in Indiana.
"There needs to be a quicker process for very outdated laws to be updated," she said. "Because now, forging a $10 check can be the same punishment as killing somebody. It blows my mind that it took the prosecutor, victims and everybody else to say this isn't right."
Originally proposed as a Senate bill, the legislation was later written into House Bill 1052. It takes effect Tuesday and is named for Jimmy DeBoy, a 9-year-old from Lafayette who died after being hit by an impaired driver.
Jimmy had been riding his bicycle on the sidewalk along South Ninth Street in July 2006.
The driver, Cesar De La Rosa, pleaded guilty to driving with marijuana in his system and was sentenced to 14 years in prison -- the maximum he could receive under a plea agreement to the Class B felony. It was the most serious offense prosecutors could charge under current law.
"The roads are safer now because of Jimmy DeBoy," said state Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette. He sponsored the original bill.
"This was personal for me because it's a local family whom I know. It's personal for me, too, because I'm a father raising two children by myself," Alting said.
"... This was a long time coming in Indiana, to strengthen the books for operating while intoxicated."
The new legislation has four components, said Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington, who testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of it:
It increases punishment from a D felony to a B felony for drivers who leave the scene of a crash that caused serious bodily injury, meaning the maximum prison sentence is raised from three years to 20 years.
This was inspired by the serious injuries inflicted upon Eva Phillips of Lafayette, who was struck by an impaired driver in a parking lot and dragged 452 feet. Phillips later died.
Drivers arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated who have prior convictions for OWI causing death, causing serious bodily injury or OWI with a minor in the vehicle can be charged with a C felony.
Under current law, punishment could not be enhanced if the first conviction happened more than five years before the new charges, Harrington said.
Judges can order that a defendant's driver's license be suspended after the person is released from prison. Before, it could begin at the date of conviction, meaning some drivers -- such as De La Rosa -- are serving the suspension while behind bars.
OWI causing serious bodily injury and felony resisting law enforcement will now be considered crimes of violence, meaning courts can impose individual punishment in certain cases.
Currently, if a driver were to hit five people in the parking lot, the maximum sentence he faces is four years in prison, Harrington said. But the new law would allow penalties imposed for each person injured.
"I'm very proud that the DeBoys went public with their very personal tragedy," Harrington said. "They had the determination to try and make something positive out of the most extreme personal loss a family can suffer."
Sprowl, too, is proud of the DeBoys. The families' paths crossed when they were at the Statehouse to watch Gov. Mitch Daniels sign the bill.
"We're very happy that something came out of this," Sprowl said. "From what I hear, it was pretty precedent-setting how quickly the bill went through in such a short time period."
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