Drunken driver called a murderer

Kim Smith

Friday, Sept. 8, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

Calling him a coward and a murderer, District Judge Joseph Bonaventure Thursday sentenced a 24-year-old man to 16 to 40 years in prison for a May 10 drunken driving incident that killed four family members.

After hearing from the family of the victims, Bonaventure told Michael Pickett he is just as much a murderer as a man he sentenced earlier in the day who used a gun to kill his victim.

"You took lives and you stole the hearts of many other people because of your stupidity," Bonaventure said before pronouncing the sentence that had been worked out in a plea bargain. "It is my opinion you should think of those lives every single day."

Pickett, the father of two small children, had a blood alcohol content more than double the legal limit when he smashed into the rear of a car, according to police.

Pickett's pickup, which was going between 56 and 65 mph, pushed the four-door sedan 215 feet through the intersection of Main Street and Washington Avenue.

Mary Lynn Sargent, 46, and her boyfriend of 16 years, James Burton Hendron, 59, died at the scene. Sargent's daughter, Michelle Jamieson, 22, who was eight months pregnant, died the next day after undergoing an emergency Caesarean section. The baby, Julius, suffered brain and kidney damage and died five days later.

Pickett pleaded guilty in July to four counts of driving under the influence causing death, and prosecutors agreed to drop 13 other charges, including involuntary manslaughter.

Alan Schneiderman said his mother and sister were on their way home from his 29th birthday party when Pickett killed them. He asked the judge for the maximum possible sentence for Pickett, saying he hopes he feels exactly what it feels like to lose his entire family.

Jamieson's fiance, Jose Azzari, read a prepared statement detailing his devastation.

"Michelle Jamieson was by all purposes the best person that I have ever known. She was young, naive and as pure of soul as anyone I could possibly have imagined to encounter," Azzari read.

Azzari, too, asked for the maximum sentence, saying Pickett had "caused the future of countless people to be changed forever."

A tearful Pickett said he was "terribly sorry" for what he has done and vowed to become a better person and to help others who suffer from substance abuse problems.

"I also want to say I'm sorry to my mother and father. They've been wondering where they went wrong. They didn't. I did," Pickett said. "I also want to say I'm sorry to my wife, Tammy, for not being the husband I should have been. I should have been home with her instead of out drinking beer and smoking marijuana."