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A Palm Harbor man pleads guilty to two DUI-manslaughter charges.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000
LARGO -- A 23-year-old Palm Harbor man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two charges of DUI-manslaughter, almost exactly a year after a wreck on U.S. 19 that killed two people.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Nicholas John Howard was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.
About 7 a.m. on Aug. 13, 1999, Howard was driving home from two parties with three passengers in a red Ford Explorer when he swerved across U.S. 19 into oncoming traffic.
He was driving north less than a quarter-mile from his Twin Lakes apartment at the time of the wreck, which occurred just north of Curlew Road.
The crash killed Deborah D. Hanges of Palm Harbor on her 45th birthday. She had been on her way to work at the corporate offices of the Checkers restaurant chain in Clearwater.
One of Howard's passengers, Joseph Battagliola, 20, was thrown from the Explorer and died when a southbound Toyota Camry struck him.
Hanges' family asked prosecutor Rob Dittmer and Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt Downey for a measure of leniency and did not object to the plea.
If convicted at trial, Howard faced more than 20 years in prison.
"He is a young man," said Hanges' husband, Paul Hanges. "I think 10 years in prison is sufficient for him to learn a lesson from this. Compassion for him was part of our decision. But everybody lost in this case. There are no winners."
Hanges said the family also did not want to take a chance of an acquittal at a trial, which was to have opened today.
One problem might have been proving the defendant's blood-alcohol level.
A blood sample taken from Howard more than three hours after the accident showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.042 percent, which is not a level at which the law presumes a driver is impaired.
The chief toxicologist for the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office calculated that Howard was driving with a blood-alcohol level between 0.08 and 0.14 percent when the crash occurred.
A blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent is the threshold at which Florida law presumes that a driver is impaired. Howard had a history of traffic violations before the crash.
He was convicted in 1998 for careless and improper driving, failing to obey a traffic instructional sign and failure to wear a seat belt.
In 1995, he had been convicted of driving while his license was suspended.
"He amputated my soul mate from my life without my consent," Hanges said in an interview.