They insist that the drunken driver who killed a motorcyclist two years ago should spend time in prison.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published November 11, 2003
CLEARWATER - Patricia Willets was quite a sight during the holidays, perched atop her purple three-wheeled motorcycle that was decorated with wreaths and red ribbons.
On Dec. 21, 2001, Willets, 46, was driving that bike on Myrtle Avenue. She had just been on her first date in more than seven years and was heading home.
But a Buick Regal made a left turn in front of her. Willets' bike hit the car, splintered into pieces and exploded. Willets was thrown from the bike and killed.
The driver of the Buick, Aaron B. Nugent, 29, was charged with drunken driving manslaughter after tests found his blood-alcohol level was almost twice the level at which Florida law presumes impairment. Nugent pleaded no contest to the charge in September.
During sentencing Monday afternoon, Willets' friends, most from the local biker community, told Judge Jack St. Arnold that he needed to send Nugent to prison. Under state sentencing guidelines, Nugent faced a minimum of about 13 years in prison, a maximum of about 20 years.
Nugent's mother and his attorney, however, urged St. Arnold to depart from sentencing guidelines and make the punishment light.
After taking a short break to consider, St. Arnold returned and sentenced Nugent to 13 years of probation. He will serve the first year in work release, the second and third years under house arrest and the remainder under customary probation.
The Clearwater resident also must perform 500 hours of community service speaking to others about alcohol abuse.
Willets' biker friends were upset by the decision. One stormed out of the courtroom. Another sat in her car crying afterward.
"If you do something like this, you cannot be slapped on the hand," said Nick Kourchenko, president of Bikers Down, a local group that helps bikers wounded in accidents.
Nugent's attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, argued that Nugent could do more good outside of prison than behind bars. He also said Nugent was remorseful and his crime was isolated.
Nugent took the stand himself and apologized to Willets' friends. He said he made a horrible mistake by drinking and driving.
"It's a horrible, horrible feeling to know you affected so many lives in that way," he said. "And it will never go away."
Since the accident, he has been going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, he said. He works for a sports marketing firm and helps his girlfriend support her three young girls.
"I have a guilty conscience that eats at me and eats at me and eats at me," he said. "And it will forever."
Willets' only family is her son, but friends said he had violated his probation in north Florida and could not make the sentencing hearing. More than a dozen bikers attended, many dressed in leather and sunglasses.
"I'm sure the defendant didn't intend to kill someone, just like Tricia didn't mean to die that night," said Bonnie Lee Lancaster, one of Willets' friends. "It doesn't matter that you're going to AA meetings or you're sorry for what you did. What matters is there are laws in Florida that we all must follow."
Lancaster suggested St. Arnold had a duty to sentence Nugent to prison to send a message that drunken-driving laws will be enforced. She said bikers are more vulnerable to drunken drivers than other motorists.
"There's no anger toward this young man," she said. "He didn't intend for what happened. But I do want the law to apply to this man because that's the only way the law can be respected.
"Tricia was a friend to everyone," she added, noting that Willets was involved in biker charities, such as Toys for Tots. Hundreds of bikers gathered in Phillipe Park a few months after her death to watch her son scatter her ashes into the water.
Lancaster also told St. Arnold how she often visits the corner at Myrtle Avenue and Seminole Street where the crash occurred. She has spent her past two Christmas days there and likely will spend a third at the corner next month. She hangs wreaths and photos of her friend. She prays and cries.
When a tearful Nugent took the stand minutes later, he looked at Lancaster in the audience and said: "I'm surprised I haven't bumped into you there."
Nugent said he avoided the corner in the months after the accident. Eventually, he forced himself to stop there. He looked at the photos and the wreaths and realized how much people loved the woman he killed.
"I am well aware," he said, "that I am living and she is not."
