By Crystal Bozek
cbozek@eagletribune.com
July 10, 2009 12:02 am LAWRENCE — Prosecutors said Christopher Howarth should be sent to jail because he will never learn, but a judge disagreed. Nineteen years after the Lawrence man sped through a red light and slammed into a car, killing three people — and nine years after his first drunken-driving conviction — Howarth was before a judge again yesterday. This time Howarth, 37, was facing his second drunken-driving charge in Lawrence District Court, along with charges of driving erratically and failure to stop at a stop sign. He had been driving home from an Essex Street restaurant last year after drinking, and police said they clocked him going 50 mph on side streets. He refused a Breathalyzer test. "What troubles the court is you're back here nine years later. It would appear to me you can't have anything to drink," Judge Barbara Pearson said. Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick asked Pearson to lock Howarth up for the next two years yesterday after he admitted to the crime, saying this cannot continue. But Pearson decided Howarth will not go to jail this time. Pearson instead handed down a two-year suspended sentence. Howarth will lose his license for two years, enter an inpatient program, spend 20 hours volunteering at a head injury treatment facility, and pay a $600 fine, victim fees and monthly probation fees. If he gets in trouble in the next three years he will go to jail for two years. Strasnick yesterday read a letter from the families of the original crash victims, asking that the judge punish him for not correcting his ways. Howarth, then 18, killed Roland Thibault, 26, and his wife, Gina, 24, of Derry, N.H., and Robert Ryan, 27, of Lawrence, when he ran a red light on South Broadway and his truck hit their car, sending it careening out of control and into the former Metropolitan Credit Union building in April 1990. He ran from the scene. Howarth was later sentenced to a two-year jail term on three counts of negligent homicide. His license was suspended for 10 years. "He didn't show remorse. ... Christopher Howarth is a gun that's waiting to go off," Strasnick read from the statement. "It's a slap in the face to his family. ... His license should be revoked for life." But attorney Phillip Doherty argued that Howarth, a landscaper, hasn't had any problems in the nine years since his last arrest. "I think the commonwealth wants you to punish him again for what happened 19 years ago," Doherty said. In 2000, a 28-year-old Howarth was arrested on charges of drunken driving, driving with a revoked license, and failure to stop for a police officer after officers pursued him from Andover into Lawrence. He served less than a year for driving with his license revoked and lost his license for a short time. "Two years over your head for three years should keep you out of trouble," Pearson advised Howarth yesterday. "Do not drive."
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