A 56-year-old Pine Bluff man who killed a 75-year-old great-grandmother in a May 2014 drunken-driving crash was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday after his attorney argued that Clarence Ramsey Smith's chronic diabetes would likely destroy his legs and feet if he were imprisoned for any substantial amount of time.
The sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright will be followed by a three-year suspended sentence that requires Smith, a former Pine Bluff and Army policeman, to get alcohol treatment and pay a $1,500 fine. Smith pleaded guilty to felony negligent homicide and misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated and no insurance in November.
He faced a maximum of 20 years in prison.
"What Mr. Smith did was terrible. Clearly, he deserves to be punished," his attorney, Didi Sallings, told the judge. "I do believe he will lose his feet and legs [in prison]. That's more punishment than the law allows."
Sallings urged the judge not to send Smith to prison, presenting medical testimony that Smith's diabetes has left his legs and feet numb, putting him at high risk for infectious injury. He regularly suffers serious foot sores and other injuries that can require surgery, and cannot stand or walk for very long.
Sallings said that prison would not provide the quality of care he receives now through the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, which includes specially made shoes and regular checkups with a doctor.
According to crash reports, Smith was headed east in the right-hand lane of the 10000 block of Maumelle Boulevard when he drove his Ford Explorer across the median, clipping the rear end of a westbound truck, and then slammed into the driver side of an eastbound car.
The driver of the truck was not seriously injured, according to police reports, but the driver of the second vehicle, Wanda Hopkins of North Little Rock, was seriously injured and died in hospital a week later.
On Monday, deputy prosecutor Matt Stauffer called for significant prison time for Smith, arguing that the defendant is an unrepentant, admitted alcoholic whose medical history includes ignoring his diabetes and refusing to take his drinking problem seriously.
"He's had treatment twice. He's had those opportunities," Stauffer said, noting that Smith's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. "He claims his problem is alcohol ... but he's taking tobacco and drinking alcohol. He's not going to do better. He killed a woman with a 0.19 blood alcohol content."
Smith testified he'd consumed four 25-ounce cans of Busch beer and had started drinking less than three hours before the collision, and has been through alcohol treatment twice in the past 10 years but has never been able to stop drinking for more than a year.
Hopkins' oldest daughter, Debra Dunham, 56, testified her mother loved four things besides her family; the Arkansas Razorbacks, diet Dr Pepper, crafting and romantic movies.
"We gave her a run for her money, raising four girls," Dunham said as her sisters wiped away tears in the audience. "She worked every day of her life."
She told the judge her mother was likely on her way to Target to buy soda when she was killed, saying the fatal crash took place only two minutes from her mother's home.
Hopkins left behind more than her daughters, as she also had 17 grandchildren -- an 18th was born recently -- and 13 great-grandchildren when she died, Dunham said. Hopkins loved to handcraft individual Christmas presents for everyone in the family.
A recent inheritance had helped her mother get over worrying about her finances, and she was excited about new furniture she had just bought, Dunham told the judge.
But Hopkins' violent death haunts her and her sisters, Tammy Waschalk, Teresa Jones and Kimberly Grady, she said.
"She had bones broken, flesh torn. We'll never be able to erase that from our minds," she said, adding that doctors could not say whether her mother's last days were painful. "This has truly broken me."
Smith told the family he was sorry for what he'd done, testifying that he could not remember the collision. He said he was on his way to Little Rock to meet his son to go fishing.
"I never in my life wanted to hurt anyone," he said. "I'm very sorry."
Metro on 08/04/2015