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Letter to the editor

Emotions flow at DUI hearing

The driver says "I'm the one who deserved to die."

By BY JOSE CARDENAS
Published January 26, 2008

Rose Athas's son, Andrew Garcia, was killed in 2006. On Friday, the man guilty in his DUI death was told to expect about 10 years.
	[Atoyia Deans | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT Joseph Eagan, 22, says he is filled with remorse. Andrew Garcia, 21, was friends with Joseph Eagan.

Two sets of families and friends sat on opposite sides of the courtroom Friday.

On one was the family of Andrew Garcia, a 21-year-old Palm Harbor college student killed in a drunk driving wreck two years ago.

On the other was the family of the driver, Joseph Edward Eagan, charged with DUI manslaughter.

Eagan, 22, of Palm Harbor came to court with his attorney to ask for a less severe sentence than the prison term of slightly more than 10 years called for by sentencing guidelines.

He pleaded guilty. After an emotional hearing that lasted about seven hours, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley said she planned to give him a sentence in line with the guidelines - about 10 years and 4 months.

"After listening to everyone, I can't come up with anything that is more appropriate than what the Legislature has said the sentence should be," she told him. She plans to impose the sentence Feb. 26.

Eagan, who was somber as Ley announced her plan, was at the wheel of a 2001 Acura Integra when the fatal wreck took place the night of June 1, 2006. He was heading south on Mill Pond Road at the Innisbrook Resort about 1:50 a.m. when he lost control and hit a tree, killing Garcia.

Eagan's blood-alcohol content that night was 0.14 percent - nearly twice the level at which Florida law presumes a driver to be impaired.

During Friday's hearing, Eagan and his attorney, George Tragos, said Eagan was filled with remorse at the death of his best friend.

Eagan even testified he bought a gun illegally so he could kill himself because he was so depressed. But he said he changed his mind and threw it away in a trash can behind a Publix.

"If I could have one wish, it would be to trade places with Andrew, because I'm the one who deserved to die in that accident," a sobbing Eagan told the judge. "... I live with it every day."

Eagan testified he even gave Garcia's family $1,500 - all the money he had - because they needed financial help.

But assistant state attorney Aaron Slavin questioned Eagan's sincerity. The prosecutor pointed out that Eagan dressed as a rock star and drank alcohol at a Halloween party a few months after the crash.

Slavin also noted that Eagan's family videotaped Garcia's memorial service, including Eagan's eulogy for his friend. Slavin complained that Eagan's family gave the video to Tragos to use in court as mitigating evidence in the case.

Tragos disputed that the video was a legal ploy. He noted that no one in Eagan's family suggested that he give the eulogy for Garcia.

Pamela Eagan asked for leniency for her son.

"Joe will have to live with this for the rest of his life," she said. "... I'm pleading to the court today for mercy for my son, my first-born son. Please spare him."

But Garcia's sister tearfully recalled the night her brother died.

"I always told people I didn't know what I would do without my brother, and I was about to find out," said Melissa Athas, who last year organized a DUI awareness program at Tarpon Springs High School.

Athas said it has been unimaginable to live without a brother whose "heart was loving, pure and true."

Two years after his death, "I fall asleep each night praying that I could see him in my dreams, and I wake up knowing that I'll never see him again," she said. "People keep telling me it gets better in time, but how?"

Both young men were students at St. Petersburg College and both planned to pursue careers in health care. Garcia, a 2003 graduate of Tarpon Springs High School, worked as an assistant at a Walgreens pharmacy and planned to go to pharmacy school.

Ley, who often speaks at schools, spoke to both families about the dangers of alcohol use by young people and adults.

At schools, "I tell them stories exactly like here, because every kid who gets behind the wheel thinks it won't be me," Ley said.

To Tragos, she said that the two years in prison that Tragos envisioned for his client was not nearly enough.

Ley indicated she wanted Garcia's family to think about what a proper sentence should be. She warned them that even "if I give Mr. Eagan 15 years in prison, it's not going to bring Andrew back."

In remarks that caused her whole family to weep, Garcia's mother said she recognized that.

"I can still remember the very first time I held Andrew in my arms at the hospital," Rose Athas said. "He was everything to me. I thought I had the perfect pair. I had my daughter, whom I adore, and I had my son. I have no other son.

"I know there's no winners or losers," she told Ley before the judge announced her decision. "Whatever your sentence may be, we're not winners here. We lost already."

Then, after the hearing ended about 9 p.m., both families still sat on opposite sides of the aisle. Their emotions were so raw that bailiffs had them leave separately, one side of the courtroom at a time.

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or 727 445-4224.

[Last modified January 26, 2008, 11:44:04]