‘Melrose Place’ actress sentenced to 3 years in deadly DUI crash

Actress Amy Locane-Bovenizer spent a season living at “Melrose Place” -- now she’ll spend three years living behind bars at a New Jersey state prison.

Locane-Bovenizer was sentenced Thursday to three years for vehicular homicide and three for assault by auto after a drunken June 2010 crash in which a woman was killed and her husband was critically injured. The actress was driving 53 mph in a 35 mph zone and had a blood-alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit at the time of the accident, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

The prosecution said during the trial that the community-theater actress was drinking at a cast party and then later at a barbecue she attended with her family before hitting the road alone in her SUV.

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The sentences will run concurrently. She’ll be eligible for parole after about 30½ months, and will be credited with 81 days already served.

“I’ve never cried tears like these,” a weeping Locane-Bovenizer said at the sentencing. “I’m settled, I’m devastated, I’m hurt beyond belief. This experience has deepened my perception of what you’re all going through and how excruciating it is to have the person or persons that you love more than life itself separated from you at a distance.”

The sentence angered Fred Seeman, who was injured in the crash, and his son Ford, causing an outburst in the Somerville, N.J., courtroom. (See it on video on the Star-Ledger’s site.)

“This isn’t justice,” Ford Seeman shouted to the judge, angry that the sentence had been dropped to three years from the five to 10 she’d received from the jury. Locane-Bovenizer was cut some slack when the judge considered the effect that incarceration would have on her two daughters, one of whom has Crohn’s disease.

“Having a sick child doesn’t give you a pass to kill my wife,” said Fred Seeman, whose wife, Helene, was killed in the crash. “How do you drop it down?” he cried out to the judge.

Locane-Bovenizer had been acquitted of a more serious charge of aggravated manslaughter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ALSO:

‘Melrose Place’ actress Amy Locane charged with vehicular homicide

Lucy Lawless sentenced to community service, avoids a huge payout

Amy Locane-Bovenizer of ‘Melrose Place’ indicted for aggravated manslaughter

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