4-Year Sentence for Driver in Fatal Hit-Run : 2nd Offense: The sentence was given to a 23-year old illegal alien whose license had been suspended for an earlier hit-and-run accident.

A young Ricardo Santillan stood tensely, his fingers twitching nervously, in Vista Superior Court on Thursday as he heard from the family he devastated:

The dignified old man who lost his wife of 54 years because of Santillan’s reckless driving was too sad to speak, so a friend read his words to the court: “In a split second, my life had been destroyed.”

The son, his hands trembling and his voice breaking, said of his mother, “Nothing I can say or do will ever allow me to see her, talk to her, or be with her again, and nothing done in this courtroom can change that.”

After all the choked-back tears, Judge Ronald Prager gave Santillan, 23, the maximum sentence of four years in state prison for the hit-and-run death of Tony Scott-Hamilton, who was 78.

Santillan was driving with a suspended license from a previous hit-and-run conviction when he struck the woman Dec. 29 as she and her husband, Maxwell Scott-Hamilton, 77, were taking their usual morning walk in Oceanside.

Santillan, who was traveling 55 to 60 m.p.h. in a 35-m.p.h. zone, then sped away until two witnesses in a cumbersome tar truck chased him into a dead-end street and ordered him to go back.

The Scott-Hamiltons had gone through the bombing of London in World War II. He, as a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, had survived combat at sea. They moved to Oceanside in 1981 and planned to make the final mortgage payment on their home, with the big American flag out front, on the day Tony died.

Santillan, a Mexican citizen who was living in Oceanside illegally, prosecutors say, had initially pleaded not guilty to felony charges of vehicular manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter and hit and run, and to one misdemeanor count of driving with a suspended license.

He later agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of hit-and-run causing a death, which is punishable by two to four years, depending on the severity of factors, in state prison.

To defense attorney Terry Kolkey, what happened was tragic, but the crime resulted from Santillan’s “negligence” and “irresponsibility” rather than criminal intent.

He said his client has a “minimal record” of offenses that have not merited prison time. Santillan’s previous hit and run, on Feb. 9, 1989, after which his license was suspended, involved no injuries.

Kolkey characterized Santillan as remorseful over Scott-Hamilton’s death.

But Judge Prager, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Walden and the Scott-Hamiltons believed that Santillan deserved the maximum sentence because he ignored the revocation of his driving privileges and had no automobile insurance.

“And now he stands before us having killed somebody,” Walden said. “I think that’s irresponsible, criminally irresponsible.”

Prager was also swayed to deny probation or a lesser prison term because Santillan fled after he hit the woman with such force that his car hood was crumpled and a hole was smashed in his windshield. The impact flung her body 80 feet.

Scott-Hamilton, emotionally unable to speak for himself, stood beside the neighborhood friend, Richard Lyons, a retired Navy rear admiral who read his words.

He asked for the most severe penalty, noting “not in any way will this compensate me for my loss . . . but by doing so, you may save the life of some other wife, or son, or daughter, or loved one.”

His son, Rod Hamilton, told the court “the low-life killer before you not only has no morals, but no value or common decency . . . (he) simply drove on, attempting to get away.”

Hamilton said “the law enforcement system itself was negligent” by failing to deport Santillan after his first hit-and-run conviction.

Prager, noting Santillan’s attitude toward vehicle laws, said, “This was a situation that was waiting to happen. He knew he had no business being out there in the first place.”

The judge gave Santillan 115 days credit for time served and fined him $1,500. Walden said Santillan could be eligible for parole in two years.