Max jail in Scout slay
L.I. drunken driver gets 8 years for hitting boy, 12, on troop hike
A Long Island drunken driver who killed a Boy Scout on a troop hiking trip was sentenced Wednesday to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison on the second anniversary of the deadly crash.
Thomas Murphy, 61, received the maximum sentence hours after Suffolk County Judge Fernando Camacho denied his request for a new trial because of alleged juror misconduct, authorities said.
“Mr. Murphy, you have caused tremendous destruction,” Camacho told Murphy before he was taken away in handcuffs, Newsday reported.
Murphy was drunk on vodka when he got behind the wheel of his Mercedes SUV on Sept. 30, 2018, and slammed into a troop of Boy Scouts hiking along David Terry Road in Manorville, said prosecutors.
Andrew McMorris, 12, was killed and three other boys were injured.
Murphy refused to take a Breathalyzer test at the scene. A court-ordered blood test conducted four hours later found his blood alcohol content was .13, well above the legal limit of .08, authorities said.
He was convicted last December of vehicular homicide and manslaughter charges, but his sentencing was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Defense lawyer Steve Politi was furious that the judge imposed the maximum sentence on a man with no criminal history.
“The sentence is absolutely unfair. It shows no independent thought by the court. It lacks the courage that you’d expect to see from a judge in determining what’s a fair sentence, and it’s outrageous,” Politi told the Daily News.
Politi said his client was not drunk at the time of the crash.
“He didn’t consume enough alcohol to be intoxicated. I disproved that in court, but the jury didn’t accept that. Mr. Murphy passed the field sobriety test. Mr. Murphy was not intoxicated,” said Politi.
Politi pushed for a mistrial last month, backed by four juror affidavits that claimed fellow jurors had trouble keeping their mouths shut outside
the courtroom.
Andrew’s family was outraged when Judge Camacho announced he would hold a three-day hearing over the concerns — delaying Murphy’s sentencing even further.
“It’s mean. It’s mean. Take your sentence,” said the boy’s mother, Alisa McMorris, last month. “Give some honor back to your family and let Andrew rrest in peace.”
But Camacho ruled Wednesday that “isolated remarks” from jurors did not rise to the level of widespread misconduct, Newsday reported.
More than 100 of Andrew’s ffamily and friends arrived for tthe sentencing in Central Islip, aand a number of them gave eemotional victim impact statements, according to multiple reports.
“We can begin to heal. We hhaven’t healed in two years,” dad John McMorris told CBS New York. “How could we heal through all of this nightmare?”
“While nothing can bring Andrew back, I urge the people of Suffolk County to honor his memory by vowing to never make that selfish, reckless decision to drive drunk,” Suffolk County DA Timothy Sini said in a statement. “Let that be his legacy: that no other family should ever have to go through this tragedy.”