Drunk Driver Gets 4 Years for Fatal Plunge Into Crowd

A man whose drunk driving resulted in the death of a 31-year-old woman was sentenced to four years in prison Monday, despite pleas from the victim’s mother that he be sentenced to “state prison for the rest of his natural life.”

Reading in a quavering voice from a prepared statement, Sherrie Berns said Charles William Farrell, who pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the death of her daughter, should be required to “see people that are injured” and to “go to the morgue.”

“I walk around with such an ache in my heart,” Berns said at Farrell’s sentencing.

As about three dozen of Berns’ relatives and friends watched, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge C. Bernard Kaufman sentenced Farrell in the Nov. 28, 1987, accident in which Arlene M. Berns was killed and Rick Portanova, 26, was injured.

Kaufman stayed the sentence until July 5 to allow Farrell, 26, a sales representative for a Chatsworth electronics firm, to put his personal affairs in order. But Kaufman forbade Farrell to drive during that time.

Farrell, after leaving a night club at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys about 2 a.m., drove his Porsche into a group of people standing in the hotel’s parking lot, police said.

Several people jumped out of the way, but Berns and Portanova were struck by Farrell’s car, police said. She was taken by paramedics to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where she remained in a coma until she died Dec. 3 of head injuries.

Tests after the accident showed Farrell had a blood-alcohol level of .20%, twice the legal standard for intoxication in California, and had an unknown amount of cocaine in his blood, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pargament, who prosecuted the case.

In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Farrell pleaded guilty on April 28 to one count of vehicular manslaughter with negligence instead of a more severe charge of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Farrell also pleaded guilty to one felony count of driving under the influence and causing an injury.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years, but the maximum sentence was limited to four years as part of the plea agreement, Pargament said. If convicted of the original charges, Farrell could have received a maximum term of 10 years in prison.

But Pargament said prosecutors did not believe they could prove that Farrell was “wholly indifferent” to the consequences of his behavior, required for a finding of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Farrell’s then-girlfriend, Mercy Lee, who was in the car with him when the accident occurred, testified during his preliminary hearing that she distracted Farrell by arguing with him, Pargament said.

Saying Farrell has suffered “total depression” because of the accident and “lives with what he did every day,” Farrell’s attorney, Peter Brown, asked for leniency.

Portanova, the other victim of the accident, asked that Farrell receive probation. Portanova, a friend of Farrell’s, suffered leg injuries when he was struck by Farrell’s car but has since recovered.

“He’s not the kind of person who would ever intentionally hurt anybody,” Portanova said. “I think it’s a freak accident.”

The Los Angeles County Probation Department, saying that Farrell is genuinely remorseful, recommended a sentence of 16 months. But Kaufman said the stiffer sentence could serve as a deterrent to other drunk drivers.

With credit for good behavior and work, Farrell could be eligible for parole within two years, Pargament said.