Andrew Thomas Gallo (KTLA) |
SANTA ANA ( KTLA) -- The man convicted in the high-speed, drunk driving crash that killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others has been sentenced to 51 years to life in prison.
An attorney for 24-year-old Andrew Thomas Gallo had asked the judge for leniency ahead of Wednesday's sentencing, saying in court papers that her client is "not a monster." Instead, attorney Jacqueline Goodman says in the papers, Gallo was immature and the product of a broken home. She said his alcohol addiction led him to drink for hours with his stepbrother before blacking out and getting behind the wheel of the family's minivan.
Gallo was convicted in September of three counts of second-degree murder, two felony counts of driving under the influence and causing great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run for the April 9, 2009 crash.
He is expected to appeal the sentence.
The crash in Fullerton occurred hours after a game in which Adenhart pitched six innings of shutout baseball for the Angels.
After the game, as Adenhart and his friends headed to a nightclub in Fullerton in a Mitsubishi sedan, a Toyota minivan with Gallo behind the wheel slammed into the Mitsubishi.
Killed along with Adenhart in the Mitsubishi were two of Adenhart's friends: Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, the driver of the Mitsubishi who was a former cheerleader and broadcast journalism major at Cal State Fullerton; and Henry Nigel Pearson, 25, a journalism graduate from Arizona State University.
A fourth person in Stewart's car, Jon Wilhite, 24, a former baseball player at Cal State Fullerton, survived and is still recovering from his injuries.
According to police, tests revealed that Gallo, who ran a red light, had a 0.22 blood-alcohol level -- nearly three times the legal limit for driving in California -- at the time of the crash.
Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said Gallo was on probation for felony drunken driving at the time of the wreck.
An attorney for 24-year-old Andrew Thomas Gallo had asked the judge for leniency ahead of Wednesday's sentencing, saying in court papers that her client is "not a monster." Instead, attorney Jacqueline Goodman says in the papers, Gallo was immature and the product of a broken home. She said his alcohol addiction led him to drink for hours with his stepbrother before blacking out and getting behind the wheel of the family's minivan.
Gallo was convicted in September of three counts of second-degree murder, two felony counts of driving under the influence and causing great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run for the April 9, 2009 crash.
He is expected to appeal the sentence.
The crash in Fullerton occurred hours after a game in which Adenhart pitched six innings of shutout baseball for the Angels.
After the game, as Adenhart and his friends headed to a nightclub in Fullerton in a Mitsubishi sedan, a Toyota minivan with Gallo behind the wheel slammed into the Mitsubishi.
Killed along with Adenhart in the Mitsubishi were two of Adenhart's friends: Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, the driver of the Mitsubishi who was a former cheerleader and broadcast journalism major at Cal State Fullerton; and Henry Nigel Pearson, 25, a journalism graduate from Arizona State University.
A fourth person in Stewart's car, Jon Wilhite, 24, a former baseball player at Cal State Fullerton, survived and is still recovering from his injuries.
According to police, tests revealed that Gallo, who ran a red light, had a 0.22 blood-alcohol level -- nearly three times the legal limit for driving in California -- at the time of the crash.
Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said Gallo was on probation for felony drunken driving at the time of the wreck.
