A 40-year-old moving company employee who killed a friend and injured two others in a head-on collision while driving drunk was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison for negligent homicide.
Jones Ilon pleaded no contest on Dec. 31 to negligent homicide and to charges that he caused injuries suffered by the occupants in the other vehicle. Ilon was driving in the wrong direction on Nimitz Highway when the collision occurred on Sand Island Access Road on March 18, 2012.
Circuit Judge Glenn Kim sentenced Ilon to the maximum 10-year prison term for the negligent homicide, and to five-year terms for each of the two negligent-injury charges. The three terms will be served concurrently.
Kim said Ilon "made an incredibly stupid decision and a lot of people will pay for it."
Within the next six months the Hawaii Paroling Authority will set Ilon’s minimum sentence.
Kim rejected a motion by defense attorney Victor Bakke for deferred acceptance of no-contest pleas and a reduced sentence of 18 months in jail and parole, saying it was a case of negligence and not manslaughter.
"He (Ilon) made a bad decision" when he chose to take the wheel of his friend’s subcompact car, Bakke said.
But Bakke said Ilon only did it because his friend, Billy Lucas, 28, was too drunk to drive. Lucas’ blood alcohol content was 0.24. Ilon’s blood alcohol content was 0.15, nearly double the legal limit for drunken driving.
The two were going to work at Island Movers when the car Ilon was driving rammed into a sport utility vehicle carrying Caroline and Felimon Batacan Jr.
In a short statement to the court Wednesday Ilon said, "I am really sorry. It won’t happen again."
Ilon pleaded guilty in 1998 to driving under the influence of an intoxicant and to driving without a valid driver’s license.
Deputy Prosecutor Kristine Yoo said that as a result of the crash, the Batacans cannot work full time, owe back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, and "pawned the last of their jewelry to pay their rent and utilities."
Yoo said that "it was not only the injuries, but the long-term effects that they suffered." After the hearing Yoo told reporters Caroline Batacan "cannot get into a bus or a car without being worried, without being paranoid."
She continued, "The kids are always worried about the parents going into a vehicle because they had to go through this trauma about being in an accident that was not their fault."
Bakke said after the hearing that Ilon doesn’t remember much of what occurred because after the crash he was in a coma. He also suffered a broken leg.
Bakke said the case presented a problem because Ilon was charged with doing something negligently, which on its own wouldn’t justify a jail sentence. If the result is death or serious injury to bystanders, though, the judge is left with a "real hard balancing act," he said.
Yoo told reporters: "Justice was served today. He did drive drunk and he is paying for that. The court sent this message — that drinking and driving won’t be tolerated."
The two lawyers said they didn’t believe Ilon’s 1998 conviction played a big part in sentencing because his record had been clean since then. Ilon, who is not a U.S. citizen, also faces possible deportation to Micronesia.
