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A man, 40, who was driving drunk, gets the maximum sentence for the crash that also injured another son.
By DAVID KARP
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 5, 2001
TAMPA -- At the end of a long Thanksgiving weekend in 1999, Francis Burns put his two boys in his car for the trip from Manatee County to their mother's home in Polk County.
Koal, 6, sat in the front passenger's seat, and Flint, 4, sat in the back. Both were buckled in for the drive up Interstate 75.
Along the way, Burns swerved to the side of road and then cut across three lanes before crashing into a highway piling. Koal died immediately of massive head injuries; Flint broke his collarbone.
Although the boys were in their seat belts, authorities said, they had not been safe: Their dad was drunk.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett sentenced Francis Burns to 20 years in prison, the maximum for killing his oldest son and injuring his youngest.
"Any questions about that?" Padgett asked.
Burns, 40, said nothing.
"I don't think there is anything the man can say," his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Harvey Hyman, told the court. "He killed his own child. His life is destroyed. There is nothing the court can do to this man."
Dressed in a prison uniform, Burns looked down at his hands as family members described him as a thoughtless and absent father.
His daughter, Ember, 13, told the judge that her dad, a truck driver, rarely visited. When she did see him, he was drunk and abusive, she said.
"It got to where I was scared of my own dad," she said. "It's like beer is more important to him than his own kids."
His former wife, Glenda Burns, said she couldn't explain to Flint what his father had done.
"It is very hard for him to understand why he came home that night, and his best friend, his brother, did not," she said. "Parents are supposed to protect their children."
Family members spoke about Koal as a bright boy who loved to ride bicycles. He often played with his brother, read bedtime stories with his sister and picked oranges.
His kindergarten teacher, Christa Buckhalter, told the judge about Koal's smile. She looked forward to seeing it every morning when he walked into her classroom at Polk City Elementary, she said.
"He had the brains, the charm and the talent that would have gotten him through life," said his aunt, Cecilia Prevatt.
The family still has his Christmas gifts from two years ago unopened.
"People tell me the pain will ease, but every day these words ring in my eyes, "I'm sorry, ma'am, your boy died instantly,' " his mother said.
Other relatives urged the judge to show mercy on Burns, who had punished himself enough.
"They are not the only ones suffering," said Burns' sister, Joyce O'Connell. "We are all suffering."
Burns loved his children, brother-in-law Richard Fielder said. "From what I have seen of Frank, he is a good father, or he was," he said.
But since the crash, Burns has not seen his remaining son and daughter. Their mother won't allow it, family members said. Packages sent to the home were returned unopened, they said.
"They have treated us like we are nothing," said Burns' mother, Barbara.
The 73-year-old has lost three loved ones since the crash: her grandson, her husband, who died of cancer four days after the fatal wreck, and now her son.
Trembling so hard that a relative had to hold her up, Mrs. Burns begged the judge to take care of her son in her last days.
"If you put him away, I won't be here to take care of him when he comes out," she said. "Judge, my son is not a criminal. My son is a good boy."