South Korean man gets 12 years in DUI in crash that killed 2

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Published Monday, April 18, 2016 | 10:55 a.m.

Updated Monday, April 18, 2016 | 4:18 p.m.

Family members wept and a Nevada judge said she wrestled with her decision before she sentenced a 23-year-old South Korean bartender on Monday to 12 to 30 years in state prison for driving drunk and causing a high-speed crash that killed two teenagers in a car on a busy Las Vegas road 13 months ago.

Seong Mo Lee apologized to the families of Kamesha J'Nyah Gilmore and Gabriell Rene Thomas, whose mothers stood together before the judge and expressed hope that their case could teach others not to make the same mistake.

"I want to be a strong member of society, to teach others," Lee said.

Angela Gilmore, whose daughter was known as "Gabby," sobbed as she remembered the March 2015 crash and being told the two inseparable best friends were dead. Gilmore was 17. Thomas was 18.

"Children in the prime of their lives," the mom said. "The first thing I thought about when they were gone was the things that would never be."

"I don't know your family," Nychele Thomas said to the defendant. "But I know it has to be hard on them. It's hard on us."

Then, to the judge, Thomas said of Lee, "He's a child. I don't think he should get 40 years."

Gilmore's father, Joe Johnson, said no one could imagine "the pain and the wreckage (Lee) left behind with the choice he made."

But he asked Clark County District Court Judge Elissa Cadish to impose a sentence that allowed Lee to "reflect on what he left behind."

Cadish said she decided against imposing the full 14-to-40 year sentence recommended by prosecutor Brian Rutledge and state parole officials.

The judge acknowledged Lee's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, and he was going 117 miles per hour when the Mercedes he was driving ran a red light and slammed into the girls' Nissan Versa on Boulder Highway.

The judge noted also that Lee was free on bail at the time after his arrest in July 2014 on misdemeanor drunk driving charge.

"How long is long enough to learn the lesson that this can never happen again?" the judge asked.

She said she wanted Lee to get substance abuse treatment in prison, and ordered him to install a locking alcohol-sensor breath device on his car for three years after he gets out.

Lee's defense attorney, Kathleen Bliss, characterized the case as tragic. But she argued that it did no good to keep Lee in prison until he's in his 60s.

"Mr. Lee, too, has lost his life as he once knew it," she said.

Bliss on Monday clarified earlier accounts about Lee's immigration status. She said Lee is a South Korean citizen who came to the U.S. legally and lived with his parents. She said she didn't know if he'll face deportation following his prison term.