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FSU prof gets prison in California fatality

The Nobel Prize winner was exceeding 100 mph in his sports car.

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A Florida State University professor was sentenced Monday to two years in prison for killing a man and injuring seven other people when his speeding Mercedes-Benz slammed into their van.

John Robert Schrieffer, 74, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who once taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, pleaded no contest July 25 to felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for crashing into the van near rural Orcutt on Sept. 24, 2004.

Schrieffer had nine prior speeding tickets and was driving on a suspended Florida license at the time.

Superior Court Judge Jim Herman ordered Schrieffer to begin serving his sentence immediately.

Schrieffer, who lives in Tallahassee, was driving on U.S. Highway 101 from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and was going more than 100 mph in his new sports car when he struck the Toyota van, killing 57-year-old Renato Catolos.

Schrieffer told investigators that a truck clipped his car and the van, but later admitted making up the account. Defense lawyer Roger Lytel said his client fell asleep at the wheel.

Under a plea deal, Schrieffer was supposed to get eight months in county jail. But Herman, after listening to tearful pleas by relatives of the crash victims during an August hearing, postponed sentencing.

"I think you need a taste of state prison," Herman said then. "The tragedy of this case is that you're a bright man who has made great contributions to society. ... It's a puzzle why you decided to drive high-performance cars at great speeds on public highways."

Schrieffer was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1972.

[Last modified November 8, 2005, 05:13:14]