Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Former UK football player gets 10 years for DUI deaths
BY JOSEPH GERTH
The Courier-Journal
SOMERSET, Ky. — Former University of Kentucky football player Jason Watts was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison Tuesday for the drunken-driving crash that killed two of his friends.
Mr. Watts, who pleaded guilty to reckless homicide March 31, never considered fighting the charges that he killed two buddies in the Nov. 15 wreck, his lawyer, Jim Lowry, told Pulaski Circuit Judge Daniel Venters Tuesday. And Mr. Watts is truly sorry, Mr. Lowry said.
But Judge Venters still threw the book at Mr. Watts.
The judge said that granting probation, which he could have done, would have “unduly depreciated” the serious ness of the crime. Instead, he sentenced Mr. Watts to five years each for the deaths of Scott Brock and Artie Steinmetz, with the terms to run consecutively.
Mr. Lowry said he will ask the judge for shock probation for Mr. Watts 30 days after the sentencing, as allowed by law. But prosecutor Eddy Montgomery, who had requested the 10-year sentence, said he will oppose shock probation, or early release from prison.
“That was not part of his plea agreement,” said Mr. Montgomery, the commonwealth attorney for Pulaski County.
Asked if he had anything to say, Mr. Watts, 22, said in a barely audible voice, “I just
want to say I'm sorry to all the people I've let down.”
Mr. Watts will be eligible for parole consideration in two years if not granted shock probation before then.
Mr. Brock, a student at Eastern Kentucky University, and Mr. Steinmetz, another UK football player, were killed when Mr. Watts' pickup truck overturned as he tried to pass a car on U.S. 27 north of Somerset.
The three were on their way to hunt deer at a Pulaski County apple orchard on a Sunday morning, and all were drunk after a night of partying after UK's football victory over Vanderbilt University the day before.
Mr. Lowry never directly asked for leniency, but he implied that Judge Venters should take it easy on his client.
“The very first thing that he told me was: "I am at fault. I created this. I don't want to have a trial. Whatever you can work out, work out,'” Mr. Lowry said.
Mr. Lowry also asked the judge to let Mr. Watts continue speaking to groups about the horrors of drunken driving.
Mr. Watts has spoken at a college in Tennessee and to high school students in Russell Springs and Somerset.
“These are not fun; they are gut-wrenching,” Mr. Lowry said. “These are not, "Get out of jail free.' They are not holiday.”
The judge said that although he has “some misgivings about the efficacy of these speaking engagements,” he would not stop Mr. Watts from making them. The decision will be up to prison officials, he said.
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