Drunk Driver Receives 4 Years in Death of 18-Year-Old : Sentence: The judge expresses empathy after reading letters from friends and family of Liana Cohen. Defense attorney had requested 16 months probation.

After hearing tearful speeches from family members of an 18-year-old killed by a drunk driver, a Santa Monica Superior Court judge on Tuesday sentenced the defendant to four years in state prison and $10,000 in restitution.

Judge Robert T. Altman, who turned down the defense attorney’s request for 16 months probation for Paul Alan Steele, said he had also received 1,430 signatures and emotional letters requesting the maximum sentence.

Los Angeles resident Steele, 39, was driving westbound on Olympic Boulevard at about 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 when he crashed head-on into a car carrying the six members of the Cohen family. Steele’s blood-alcohol level was recorded at 0.12% in a breath test, according to a police report in which Steele admitted to having had two beers and two mixed drinks before driving that night. The legal limit is 0.08%. Steele said in the police report that he was reaching down to light a cigarette when he crossed the double yellow line near the intersection of Century Park East and Olympic Boulevard.

The Cohens were returning from services at a Sephardic temple. Their daughter Liana died from massive head and chest injuries, and her three brothers, sister, mother and father suffered various injuries.

The family was preparing to send Liana to Boston’s Brandeis University on scholarship the following day.

Rosemary Cohen, Liana’s mother, told the judge how much the loss of Liana meant to her family.

“Nothing will give us back our dear Liana; we are destroyed. We have a deep wound in our heart, which bleeds and burns more each day. We are here to ask justice for the rest of us living in the streets of California.”

A tearful Rosemary Cohen pulled out photographs of her daughter and walked over to Steele saying, “This is what my daughter looked like. This is her driver’s license picture that came the day after her burial.”

Two more talks were given, one by Liana’s brother Ruben, 17, who was on crutches because of his injuries, and another by a counselor at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, where Liana was an honors student.

Altman told the family that he empathized with them.

“I spent all day Sunday reading letters from people (regarding Liana’s death), and it is probably going to result in my writing an opinion about drunk driving sentencing,” Altman said. “Obviously the death of an 18-year-old about to go off to college and on her way home in a car from the temple where she was trained, is about as heart-rending a story as can be. I have an 18-year-old daughter about to go to college. I know it’s every parent’s nightmare. I think it is healthy for a judge to empathize with a family, but one must fall back on the law.”

With that, Altman turned down the defense attorney’s request for probation and sentenced Steele, who has no prior record of drunk-driving offenses, to four years in state prison, followed by three years of probation after release. The $10,000 restitution fee was the maximum allowable. Altman also ordered that Steele get into an alcohol treatment program, join Alcoholics Anonymous and not drive a car or drink before his prison sentence begins on Nov. 13.

Although the prosecution was seeking a seven-year sentence, Rosemary Cohen appeared indifferent to the lesser sentence--which the judge deemed to be the maximum he could give because Steele had no prior record. Cohen was relieved by the opportunity to express her rage and sadness.

“I feel only pity for him,” she said. “I honestly didn’t care about the sentencing. The best sentencing for him would be to remember my daughter’s face. The punishment is not in this world. I believe in heavenly sentencing. I hope God can forgive him.”