Motorist, Wife of His Victim, Show 2 Sides of Sorrow

Shirley Smith took a deep breath, paused, then spoke in a cracked voice. “For 244 sleepless nights, I relived that horrible night. I see my beloved husband’s body smashed by a speeding automobile. I see his body bouncing on the hood. I hear my screams, ‘Stop! Stop!’ as I run helplessly to my husband’s broken body.”

Smith, whose 57-year-old husband was killed on a North Hollywood street by an intoxicated driver, appeared in Van Nuys Superior Court as defendant James Doster of Van Nuys was sentenced Friday to a two-year prison term and fined $10,000.

Criminal sentencings often are emotional proceedings. But this one was unusually so, with both a victim and the defendant testifying sorrowfully about the effect of a crime on their lives.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I have suffered, too,” a sobbing Doster, 63, told Judge Richard A. Adler before sentencing.

Donald Smith, a vice president at First Interstate Bank in Los Angeles, was crossing Riverside Drive at Laurel Grove Avenue on Dec. 8 to attend a Hanukkah bazaar when Doster’s car struck him. Police said Doster was driving 40 to 50 m.p.h. in the 35-m.p.h. zone.

Doster, a manager of a Santa Monica flower shop, left the accident, but returned 30 minutes later and was arrested, according to a Probation Department report. A test determined Doster’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.06%, making him legally intoxicated, although not legally drunk, which requires a 0.10% blood-alcohol level.

Vehicular Manslaughter

On July 3, Doster was convicted by a jury of one count of vehicular manslaughter and another count of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol.

Shirley Smith, who lives in Hollywood, told the court that, on the day of the accident, she and her husband had talked “hand in hand, professing our love. I told him how much I loved him. He told me he loved me more than life itself.”

According to the Probation Department report, Smith, 58, “is devastated by the death of her husband.” The report says she told a probation officer: “My life was centered around him. I have no reason to live.”

Smith told the court on Friday, “I will always be alone.”

The report says Doster told a probation officer, “If I had only been going five miles slower or did not have a wine cooler, this tragedy might never have happened.”

He will be eligible for parole after serving one year in prison.