MAN SENTENCED IN FIRST ALCOHOL/DRUG CRASH CONVICTION

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.