Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.
A District Court judge Thursday handed down the maximum sentence to a Las Vegas man charged with driving recklessly and causing a collision that killed two Las Vegas sisters.
District Judge Jeffrey Sobel sentenced Morty Young to 28 months to 6 years in prison.
Young, 24, had pleaded guilty to one felony count of reckless driving causing death. He was initially charged with two involuntary manslaughter and two recklessdriving charges. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped the involuntary manslaughter charges and amended the reckless driving charge to include both victims, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker.
Sobel said the Department of Parole and Probation's proposed sentence of 13 months to five years was "not severe enough punishment given that the accident resulted in two deaths."
Sisters Dorothy Lindsey, 64, and Jerlene Murray, 62, were killed in December 2001 when Young failed to yield at an intersection and his pickup truck collided with their vehicle, police said.
Aaron Pernell, the victims' brother, also asked Sobel for the maximum sentence.
Lindsay and Murray performed community service at their church and were both foster parents, he said.
"To have both sisters taken away at the same time was a travesty," he said. "They weren't just my sisters but my two best friends. I feel like Mr. Young was a sniper with an automobile."
Sobel said he was inclined to give Young the maximum sentence before either Booker or Defense Attorney Jim Oronoz argued their case.
"I don't think you intended to kill these people," he said. "But you were driving so fast you didn't have time to think. People don't go out and say, 'I want to kill people.' But when they do, why shouldn't they sit in prison?"
Young was driving 52 to 62 mph in a 25 mph zone near Lake Mead Drive and Revere Street, Booker said.
Eyewitnesses also had testified to the grand jury that Young had reached speeds of up to 70 mph, Booker said.
Young, who had been free on $50,000 bond since June 4, asked Sobel to give him a lenient sentence, saying he had a wife and a young son to take care of.
"I'm terribly sorry for what happened to the victims," he said. "If I could switch places with them I would. This wasn't my intent. I've learned from my mistake. I want to do the right thing for my son."
Oronoz said he knew his client was being sincere.
"I truly believe this isn't some sort of contrite speech to get leniency," he said. "He truly means it. This is a guy who never meant to hurt anyone. He feels horrible. Incarceration is just going to compound the problem."
But Booker argued for the maximum sentence, saying Young is a known gang member who has shown a propensity for reckless driving.
Young said he hasn't been affiliated with a gang since 1989.
He had no alcohol or marijuana in his system at the time of the collision, but he has had 15 prior traffic offenses, which include failing to yield at a traffic light, driving without insurance and numerous speeding tickets, Booker said.
"This was not an accident, it was foreseeable," Booker said. "This was a lifestyle. Given that this is the life this man was living, there was a propensity that this defendant was going to do exactly what he did do. And he just didn't care."
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