Two plead guilty in deaths from drag race

A former Henderson building inspector and another man, whose drag racing ended in a collision that killed a mother and her 10-year-old son, have pleaded guilty to felony reckless driving charges.

Although Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said he is not opposing probation for Paul Auzenne, 36, and Jeffrey Roussin, 32, the plea bargain will elicit a price for the crime.

Each defendant will pay $50,000 to the heirs of the victims and submit to a rigorous regimen of counseling and community service under the county's Serious Offender Program during their five years on probation. The two, who have been in custody since the August incident, also will be on house arrest, Booker said.

And they will have to wear bracelets imprinted with details of the fatal collision to remind them of what they did.

"We want them to think about and appreciate what they did," Booker said.

Sentencing is set for June 17.

While Booker charged the pair with drunken driving, he conceded that getting a conviction would be a long shot since their blood-alcohol levels were well below the legal limit of 0.10 percent.

He added that if the defendants were given the maximum sentences on felony reckless driving convictions, it would be unlikely they would spend more than another year behind bars.

Auzenne and Roussin were drag racing in a Henderson residential neighborhood -- one in a large pickup truck and the other in a sport utility vehicle -- when Auzenne's truck slammed head-on into a Toyota sedan driven by Mary Lou Young.

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