California DUI defense attorney news

Michael Dimitras, the 20-year-old man who killed two former high school classmates in a California DUI / drunk driving crash, was sentenced to just over six years in prison Tuesday, a term called inadequate by the victims' families.

A probation report had recommended Dimitras be sentenced to seven years and four months, a term prosecutors agreed with. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary Ransom handed down the sentence of six years and four months in exchange for Dimitras' guilty plea to California DUI.

The sentencing followed 90 minutes of emotional statements by the families of 18-year-old Kendall Lui and 19-year-old Brian Haight.

The two were killed July 4, 2006, in the crash that followed a rafting trip with fellow Bella Vista High School graduates. Dimitras, who was the group's designated driver, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.09 percent when he crashed his sport-utility vehicle into a pole along Folsom Boulevard.

The victims' families said they thought Dimitras should have faced more serious charges and questioned why he was given a shorter prison term than those who commit less serious crimes.

"Brian's only weakness was trusting the wrong people," Haight's father, Douglas, said. "And he trusted Michael Dimitras to drive him home safely."

Dimitras swiveled in his chair as several of the victims' loved ones spoke.

Lui's sister, Jordan, said Dimitras had "single-handedly ruined the lives of two families" and that she was "sickened by the lack of remorse by Michael Dimitras and his family."

While accepting the California DUI plea deal, Dimitras said he was "truly remorseful" for the crash.

"What I did was so terrible that I don't know what I can do to possibly make up for it," Dimitras said, speaking slowly and turning to face a packed courtroom.