Man on Run for 8 Years Sentenced in Fatal Crash

A man who eluded police for eight years after a drunk-driving crash that killed two young women was sentenced Tuesday to three years and eight months in prison despite an angry protest from one victim’s mother.

Ruth Hanzlik, whose daughter, Carrie Sue, was killed in the accident, told a Van Nuys Superior Court judge that Ruben Perez Lemon should receive a longer sentence.

Judge Leon Kaplan sentenced Lemon under the terms of a plea bargain reached with prosecutors last month. Lemon pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count each of felony hit-and-run and reckless driving while intoxicated.

Lemon, 28, of Woodland Hills ran a red light at Sherman Way and Reseda Boulevard on Aug. 1, 1982, and struck a car driven by Carrie Sue Hanzlik, 23, killing her and her best friend, Paula Ann Colicci, 21.

Lemon fled but was arrested later at his residence. However, he jumped bail and returned to his native Mexico, police said. He was rearrested May 10 after a Los Angeles police detective recognized him at a Woodland Hills street corner.

Had the crash occurred after the passage of tougher drunk-driving laws in 1985, Lemon could have been sentenced to the maximum term of 13 years now in effect for such crimes, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Dver, who prosecuted Lemon.

But prosecutors were able to seek a maximum sentence of only four years and four months, Dver said. The plea bargain allowed a sentence representing 85% of the current maximum sentence without prosecutors risking acquittal in a case that would go to trial at least eight years after the accident, said Dver.

Hanzlik of Granada Hills was among those who fought for the tougher drunk-driving laws.