Major League Baseball

Adenhart's killer asks for leniency

Published Dec. 22, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The attorney for a former construction worker convicted of murder for killing rookie Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others in a drunken-driving crash is asking the judge for leniency at his sentencing hearing Wednesday.

In court papers filed in Orange County Superior Court, attorney Jacqueline Goodman said her client, 24-year-old Andrew Gallo, was ''not a monster'' but was simply immature and the product of a broken home. She said his alcohol addiction led him to drink for hours with his stepbrother before blacking out and getting behind the wheel of the family's minivan.

Gallo was convicted in September of three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of the 22-year-old Adenhart and his friends, 20-year-old Courtney Stewart and 25-year-old Henry Pearson. A fourth passenger, Jon Wilhite, was severely injured.

Gallo's blood-alcohol level at the time of the collision was estimated at nearly three times the legal limit when he ran a red light and T-boned Stewart's car at a Fullerton intersection, prosecutors have said.

Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said in her own court briefings that Gallo should receive consecutive 15-years to life terms for each of the deceased victims, and an additional six years, eight months for injuring Wilhite and for leaving the scene of the collision.

Gallo was on probation for felony drunken driving at the time of the wreck, she wrote.

''His conduct showed a complete disregard for the safety of others,'' Price added. ''The jury found him guilty as charged. That's the bottom line.''

But Goodman asked Judge Richard Toohey to merge the terms of 15-years to life on his three convictions into one sentence, and also wrap in the terms for his other crimes into the same penalty.

''Andrew Gallo never intended to kill anyone and will forever regret his actions that fateful night,'' she wrote.