Louder Message on Drunks Is Needed

Re “Judge Orders the Release of Drunk Driver in Alley Death” (Nov. 16): As a Balboa Peninsula resident, I was distraught by the untimely death of Debbie Killelea in September, 1988.

Danny David Ornelas is responsible, whether “free” or not, for the brutal death of a 37-year-old woman. Her three children and husband will be forever impacted by a single drunken joy ride that has been justified by a two-year sentence now completed by Ornelas.

I, like the Killeleas, live on an alley and witness constantly the stupidity of apparently intoxicated youths speeding through our narrow alleys and streets; Balboa seems to attract this deadly behavior. The court shunned the opportunity to support residents and police officers in avoiding future fatalities and to give the Killelea family some sense of justice.

Is two years in jail sufficient punishment for slamming one’s vehicle into another human being while intoxicated? Until the courts begin to communicate a louder message about such actions, future tragedies seem inevitable.

TRACY L. KEYS, Balboa