Habitual Drunk Driver Sentenced in Death

A woman with a history of drunk-driving arrests was sentenced Thursday to nearly five years in state prison for the death of a motorcyclist she ran down while driving drunk on the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley last fall.

But prosecutors said that although Patricia Lee Giunta, 41, of Newhall received a sentence of four years and eight months, she will probably serve slightly more than two years in custody for the Oct. 4, 1989, crash that killed David Jaggs, 24, and seriously injured his wife of one month, Janine, 21.

Giunta, who was convicted last month of vehicular manslaughter, will receive credit for time served in County Jail, where she has been since April. When she is transferred to state prison, her sentence may be further reduced for good behavior.

Since 1974, Giunta has been arrested six times on drunk-driving charges, but in four of those cases the charges either were dropped or reduced. Prosecutors alleged she was able to beat convictions by manipulating the legal system.

In an emotional hearing in San Fernando Superior Court, members of Jaggs’ family pleaded tearfully for Judge Meredith C. Taylor to impose the maximum sentence and sharply criticized Giunta’s attorney for representing her in this case as he had in three others.

“He has done this woman no favor in getting her off as he has in the past,” the victim’s father, Kenneth Jaggs, said of attorney Robert Fernandez. Fernandez could not be reached for comment after the hearing.

The dead man’s mother, Leda Jaggs, said Giunta “. . . has sentenced us to a life sentence of despair, hopelessness and profound grief.”

In a direct address to the family, Giunta promised to “never drink an alcoholic beverage again.”

“I’ve had 14 months and nine days to find the words to say to you,” she said quietly and slowly. “And there just are no words to express to you the sorrow that I feel for the pain you have overwhelmingly suffered and endured.”

The Jaggs family sat expressionless during Giunta’s five-minute statement. But outside the courtroom, Janine Jaggs called Giunta’s statement a “shameless charade” intended to muster sympathy from the judge rather than forgiveness from the family.

Taylor criticized Giunta for showing little or no remorse during her trial. She said that what concern Giunta did show was “concern for yourself.”

Blood tests taken after the crash showed that Giunta had a blood alcohol level of 0.29%, nearly three times the legal limit at the time. Giunta testified that she had consumed nearly a pint of vodka and said she did not feel drunk when she entered the freeway from the Tuxford Street on-ramp and hit the motorcycle on which David and Janine Jaggs were riding.

Jaggs was the son of an Anglican priest who counsels alcoholics and drug addicts in Windsor, Ontario. Since his son’s death, the Rev. Kenneth Jaggs said he has taken a more aggressive position with patients by confronting them with the possible consequences of their addictions.