The Journal’s Scott Sexton on Tolly Carr’s sentence:
No matter how much prison time Judge John Smith gave to Tolly Carr, it wasn’t going to be enough.
Carr, the former WXII television anchor, got off light with a felony death-by-motor-vehicle charge in connection with killing Casey Bokhoven, some would say. Twenty-five to 39 months is not nearly enough.
Carr put away enough booze over a drinking binge that his blood-alcohol content was over 1 1/2 times the legal limit four hours after the wreck. Despite being warned not to drive, Carr got in his truck, careered past “road closed” signs on First Street and plowed into Bokhoven. Then he acted like a jerk, witnesses said, more concerned with the trouble that he knew he was in than with a dead man pinned under his truck.
Forgot to mention: Sexton also brings up GCS Supertintendent Terry Grier’s (perhaps ill-advised) letter supporting Carr:
Carr didn’t win any PR points with the release of a letter sent in his behalf by Terry Grier, the superintendent of Guilford County Schools, asking the judge to consider the benefits of having Carr speak to students about drunken driving.
“That letter was the last straw,” said Keith, referring to the decision to bring in a judge from another county. “The victim’s family thought the fix was in, wondering if (Carr) was going to get off with probation.”
As difficult as they may have been to arrive at, the charges by prosecutors and the sentence handed down by Smith were appropriate. Carr was treated the same as anyone else would have been.
