Student, 19, Died : Drunk Driver Gets Jail in Fatal Crash

A 23-year-old drunk driver who killed a 19-year-old student when the van he was driving rammed a car containing a Westlake Village family was sentenced Wednesday to one year in County Jail.

Last month a Van Nuys jury convicted Evan D. Haller of drunk driving, a misdemeanor. He had been charged and acquitted of felony vehicular manslaughter.

Wednesday, the part-time horse trainer received the maximum sentence allowed under law for the lesser charge. Superior Court Judge James Albracht ordered that Haller be taken into custody immediately.

Sobbing and holding onto the courtroom table for support, Miyoko Inouye showed a photograph of the victim, her daughter, Jill. “I have this great void that never will be filled,” she said Wednesday in the courtroom packed with friends and representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. “She is gone forever.”

Curt Inouye, the brother of the victim, said: “Four days ago would have been Jill’s 20th birthday. She had a lifetime of dreams to fill. There is a pain of wanting to hear her laugh.”

Pointing a finger at the defendant, Inouye’s sister, Cathy, told the court: “I hate you Evan Haller and all the others that will go free. You took someone incalculably precious away from us. You took life away from us.”

During the two-week trial that concluded March 25, Haller admitted that he had been drinking at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game several hours before the accident, which occurred on Calabasas Road in Calabasas on June 3.

According to testimony, Haller swerved to avoid hitting a telephone pole and struck a car carrying Jill Inouye, her parents and brother.

Jill Inouye, a student at California Lutheran College in Thousand Oaks, died at the scene. Her father, Ted, suffered five broken ribs and a punctured lung.

A blood test showed Haller’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.14%. A reading of 0.10% is considered legally intoxicated in California. A subsequent blood test found Haller’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.12%, said his attorney, Edward Lowe.

Driving Illegally

According to a Probation Department report released Wednesday, Haller had a lengthy record of driving infractions. He was twice cited for driving on the wrong side of the road, and pleaded guilty last year to drunk driving. At the time of the fatal accident, Haller was driving illegally on a license restricted to work-only driving after the earlier drunk-driving case.

Throughout the trial, Lowe contended that a malfunctioning tire, which separated from its rim, caused Haller to lose control of his 1977 Dodge van, causing the accident.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah Elliot maintained that Haller was guilty of gross negligence, and asked the jury to convict the defendant of vehicular manslaughter. Had Haller been convicted of the felony charge, he could have been sentenced to a maximum eight years in prison.

In asking Judge Albracht for leniency Wednesday, Lowe characterized Haller as “salvageable and redeemable.” Lowe said his client relives the “pain of the accident every day, and doesn’t deserve to be warehoused.”

‘One Year Inadequate’

Elliot called Haller a “walking threat.” She said: “The one year is not nearly adequate for the murder he committed. He doesn’t deserve any breaks.”

In sentencing Haller, Albracht said the defendant “absolutely snuffed out and eliminated a person who was a gift to her family and the world. It’s an unspeakable tragedy. An offense like this cries out for the vengeance.”

Haller will be eligible for parole in eight months, after serving two-thirds of his sentence.