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Halberstam driver sentenced to 5 days in jail

Feb 15, 2008 | Michael Manekin | San Mateo Daily News

The University of California-Berkeley journalism graduate student convicted of misdemeanor manslaughter for causing the crash that killed Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam last April was sentenced Thursday to five days in jail.

Kevin Lloyd Jones, 27, of Berkeley, will apply to serve his sentence in San Mateo County's work-release program, prosecutors said. The program allows low-risk, minimum-security offenders to serve time by performing public projects in lieu of confinement.

Jones was also ordered by a Superior Court judge to perform 200 hours of community service and pay an as-yet- undetermined amount of money to Halberstam's wife and daughter in restitution for the journalist's death. In addition, the judge ordered Jones to attend driving school and pay $24,600 to another victim of the April 23 crash in Menlo Park.

"I wouldn't call the verdict lenient," Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. "I would call it insightful. Our goal is to make Mr. Jones reflective of what he's done."

Jones was facing as many as 30 days in the program, following his decision in November to plead no contest to one count of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. He would have faced up to one year in jail for the charge if he went to trial.

Prior to his sentencing, Jones publicly apologized for "the Halberstam family's loss.

"His memory will guide my decisions for the rest of my life," Jones said, adding that he would dedicate his career as a journalist to Halberstam.

Defense attorney Laurel Headley added that "there's nothing that this court can do which would drive the impact of this event more significantly than (Jones) is already feeling it."

Jones was driving Halberstam from Berkeley to Palo Alto April 23 when he tried unsuccessfully to make a left turn at Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road in Menlo Park.

Prosecutors say that Jones caused the accident by illegally turning his 1989 Camry from the center lane against a red light. A late-model Infiniti struck the front passenger side of the Camry, where Halberstam was sitting, trapping the journalist against the indented door of Jones' car. Paramedics tried to revive the 73-year-old Halberstam, but he died at the scene of massive internal injuries.

Jones' license was suspended by the DMV in October - a consequence not of the fatal crash, but the fact that the graduate student had committed enough violations on the road to be considered a reckless driver, DMV spokesman Armando Botello said.

Jones was involved in two accidents before the crash that killed Halberstam, and both occurred within the past three years, records show. In March 2005, Jones was involved in an accident involving a 1984 Toyota, and one year later, in March 2006, he had an accident while driving a 1998 Volvo. An investigation by the District Attorney's Office concluded Jones was responsible for only the 2005 accident.

Under DMV regulations, Jones' license was suspended for six months, and he will be on probation for another six months. If he commits a traffic violation or is involved in an avoidable accident, he will be placed on probation for another year.

A county probation officer was moved, in part, by Jones' poor driving record to recommend that he serve a "significant jail sentence" of nine months and three years' probation. But Judge Mark Forcum opted for a much lighter sentence, citing Jones' remorse and the Halberstam family's wish that the graduate student not be punished with jail time.

Forcum, who said in an aside that Halberstam's classic book about the Vietnam War was "the most profound book I've ever read," ordered Jones to use his 200 hours of community service teaching children to read and write.

Both Jean Halberstam, the journalist's widow, and Julia Halberstam, the couple's 27-year-old daughter, have said publicly that David Halberstam would not have wanted to see Jones punished with jail time.

Jean Halberstam did not object to Jones' five-day jail sentence when contacted Thursday, but lamented that the DMV had not suspended his license for a longer period of time.

However, Julia Halberstam wrote in her letter to the judge that "it is still unimaginable to me that any organization would give so little thought to the safety of its guests" by hiring drivers without checking their driving records with the DMV.

"Kevin Jones could have been saved from this tragedy, too - if only his driving records had been checked, he never would have been hired," she wrote.

The jarring crash that ended the conversation, and the great journalist's death, was "the single worst moment of my life, one that I will never recover from," Jones said.

"My heart breaks for Mr. Halberstam's family every day."