SEATTLE-- Just weeks before Christmas, Jerome Dumlao lost his life in a crosswalk in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. Today, Eric Murillo, the drunk driver convicted of killing him, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
"You really took something special from me. I don't think you will understand the pain my whole family is going through," said a tearful Alida Linavat, sister-in-law to Dumlao.
Dumlao's relatives think Murillo received too light a sentence for his crime of vehicular homicide.
"Murillo's sentence will never come close to the life sentence of the pain of losing someone we love so dearly," Jennifer Dumlao told Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell.
Despite a plea for leniency, Judge Ramsdell gave Murillo the maximum sentence, saying "I hold the defendant fully accountable."
Murillo's case is just one of several high-profile DUI cases in King County Superior Court.
Fifty-year-old Alexander Peder is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide for the June 9 deaths of Decatur High School students Derek King and Nick Hodgins. The teenagers were killed just three days before graduation when Peder plowed his SUV into the back of their stalled car along I-5 in Tukwila.
Troopers say Peder has a blood alcohol level of .16, twice the state legal limit of .08. Investigators say they found an open half bottle of vodka inside the car. This was the third DUI arrest for Peder. He pleaded to lesser charges in the first two cases and not guilty in the latest case.
"We have to get them before they get into the car," said Conrad Thompson.
The former probation officer is now the chairman of the Snohomish County Target Zero Task Force. Thompson would like the state to turn a voluntary drunk driver alcohol assessment into a mandatory program. He would also like to see the state make a standardized assessment process.
Thompson believes this would cut down on repeat offenders like Peder by forcing them into rehab instead of an 8-hour alcohol information class.
"If a person has a substance abuse problem and they are misdiagnosed, I can almost guarantee they will be back behind the wheel under the influence posing a threat to citizens on the highway," he said.
New state law allowed a King County judge to convict William Gorsica of felony drunk driving instead of the lesser misdemeanor charge. This is the Federal Way man's 10th DUI conviction. He faces a maximum five-year sentence.
"That shows this is not working," says Thompson.
He believes Gorsica should get treatment in addition to the jail time. Already two state senators have expressed interest in Thompson's plan. Thompson says Washington should follow in the footsteps of Illinois, Tennessee and Oregon, which have tougher assessment and sentencing laws.
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