Man Gets 4 Years in Anaheim Death of Motorcyclist

A Garden Grove man convicted of vehicular manslaughter was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for an accident in which a motorcyclist was killed last November.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert H. Green sentenced George Samuel Pickering, 65, who police said had a long history of drunk-driving arrests, to the maximum term after his conviction for manslaughter with ordinary negligence.

Gregory Scott Sinclair, 25, of Huntington Beach was fatally injured when his motorcycle collided with a vehicle driven by Pickering, who police said was driving on the wrong side of a divided street in Anaheim. Pickering registered a blood-alcohol level of .32, more than three times the level at which a driver in California is considered legally drunk.

Pickering had been arrested seven times dating back to 1969 in Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties on drunk-driving charges before the November accident, according to court records.