A judge on Friday sentenced a Maryland man blamed for a crash that killed a New Jersey father and his four daughters to probation, reports NBC Philadelphia.
Audie Trinidad, 61 and his daughters, Kaitlyn, 20, Danna, 17, and twins Allison and Melissa, 13, all died in the crash. The mother, Rose Ballocanag, suffered injuries serious enough to end her career as a nurse.
Judge Calvin L. Scott Jr. initially sentenced Alvin Hubbard III to the maximum 14 years in prison, but quickly suspended that to one year probation over the objections of the mother, according to Delaware Online.
“His one life will never be enough for the five people he killed,” Ballocanag testified .
“I want you to look at their faces,” she said to Hubbard. “So when you look at your children, you will see the pieces of my children and my husband.”
Hubbard pleaded guilty in June to five misdemeanor counts of operating a motor vehicle causing death and two misdemeanor counts of vehicular assault. His initial charges included five counts of second-degree vehicular homicide.
Police say Hubbard’s truck swerved across the median in July 2018 and slammed into a Trinidad’s minivan.
Delaware Online reports Hubbard broke out crying several times during the trial,but declined a chance to speak. His lawyer had argued that respiratory problems that caused him to crash, something Ballocanag doubted.
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RE: Man gets probation in crash that killed five members of one family: Why does this remind me of the Vincent Chin case? Oh, Asian lives don’t matter.