Billy Lane's Jail Sentence Stands

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  Posted by BikerNews October 28, 2009 - Filed in Motorcycle News - 7,233 views
  

  Judge will not shorten prison term for Lane

  Victim's family wanted sentence to help cause

  A judge refused to shorten imprisoned celebrity motorcycle builder Billy Lane's six-year sentence despite his attorneys' claim his fatal crash victim's family thought he could do more good outside of prison, electronic court records show.

  Attorneys for Lane, 39, filed a motion last week asking Brevard Circuit Judge Robert Burger to give victim Gerald Morelock's family another chance to say what kind of punishment he should receive and to reduce Lane's sentence if he saw fit.

  Lane was sentenced in August to six years in prison after pleading no contest to one count of vehicular homicide for crashing his pickup truck head-on into 56-year-old Morelock's motorcycle while speeding past slow traffic in a no-pass zone on Sept. 4, 2006.

  Throughout the course of the case, Morelock's brother, Byron Morelock, and nephew, Sean Morelock, declined to recommend a punishment. But they asked the judge during sentencing to impose a sentence that would use Lane's celebrity status to help save the lives of young people through a foundation they plan to create in Morelock's name.

  But defense lawyers Greg Eisenmenger and Robert Berry claimed in their motion that intense media and public scrutiny caused Morelock's brother and nephew to be "vague" at Lane's sentencing about their belief that Lane would better be able to benefit society if he were not incarcerated.

  Burger denied the motion without a hearing.

  Contacted by phone Friday, Byron Morelock said he and his son continue to push through with plans for their foundation.

  "We regret this whole thing happened and both of our families got hurt in this situation and have to go on. Nothing really good came out of it for anybody," he said. "I'm sure my brother would hope that people learn something from this and all drive carefully."

  (reprinted from FloridaToday.com)