Golf Pro Pleads Guilty in Fatal Drunk Driving Crash

A Westchester golf pro pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter for a drunk driving accident last August in which his sports car struck an oncoming vehicle that contained one of his golf students and three of her family members.

Watson Cromwell Dobbs Jr. agreed to a nine-year prison term as part of a plea bargain reached in Santa Monica Superior Court. He will be sentenced next Wednesday. Ruth Guth, 66, had taken up golf so she could share a common interest with her recently retired husband. She was taking lessons from Dobbs at the Westchester Golf Course near the couple’s home.

On Aug. 26, Dobbs’ sports car struck the auto being driven by Guth and her husband, John, 69, on Lincoln Boulevard in Playa del Rey. Ruth Guth’s sister, Mary Maher, 69, a nun, and the women’s 93-year-old mother, Florence Maher, also died in the accident.

The four had spent the hours before the collision celebrating two family milestones--the Guths’ 46th wedding anniversary and Florence Maher’s birthday one day before. Dobbs’ blood-alcohol level registered 0.14% a few hours after the incident, well above the 0.08% legal limit, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Latin.

“There’s no real winners,” Jane Parks, Ruth Guth’s daughter, said after the hearing. “He’s accepted what we feel was a fair punishment for the crime. We believe him to be remorseful.”