# Man to serve 5 years for Triton student's death



## DeputyFife (Jun 28, 2005)

Man to serve 5 years for Triton student's death








By Karen A. Kapsourakis 
_Correspondent _

SALEM - A Rowley construction worker will spend five years in jail for a drunken driving accident that killed a 16-year-old Trition Regional High School student.

George E. Gardner III, 24, of 15 Fenno Drive, showed little emotion yesterday morning in Salem Superior Court as he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident involving death and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

Gardner was driving a 1993 Chevrolet pickup truck with Sean Harrington Jr. of Newbury as a front seat passenger on Oct. 26 when he lost control of his vehicle. The truck veered off the exit ramp from Interstate 95 to Route 286 in Salisbury. They crashed into a tree in a wooded area, shortly after 9 that night.

Gardner fled and was found with no pants or shoes on, with a cut on his head, an hour later by Seabrook police at a rest stop about a half-mile from the crash. Harrington was pronounced dead at the scene, from head trauma and multiple head fractures.

Sean Harrington Sr., the father of the victim, wept throughout the hearing.

"My son, my only son was a great kid and I loved him. There are no words to sum up the loss of my son. We were fishing buddies. The defendant (Gardner) was driving under the influence on a suspended license and he chose to run, not to see if my son needed assistance. You're a menace to society and a criminal. I will never see my son grow up and become the great man I knew he would have been," Harrington said in a letter read in court by his wife, Janet.

Gardner was sentenced to serve five years in prison followed by another 10 years of probation by Judge Peter F. Agnes, Jr. He will also lose his driving privileges in Massachusetts for at least 15 years.

The reconstruction analysis indicated Gardner was traveling 43 mph in a 30 mph zone when he lost control of the truck, Assistant District Attorney James A. Gubitose said. Police found a bloodied pair of pants at the scene of the accident and a pair of shoes, believed to be Gardner's. His alcohol blood level was .16, twice the legal limit, according to reports.

Gubitose asked for a longer punishment of at least seven years in jail, saying it was reasonable and appropriate. He based his recommendation on Gardner's actions after the accident.

At the time of the accident, Gardner was driving with a suspended license following a conviction out of Newburyport District Court in January 2000 on a motor vehicle infraction.

Defense lawyer Pat Morgan said his client expresses remorse and lifelong regret for his actions while asking for 18 months in jail with probation. The judge, in handing down the punishment, said the sentence was "appropriate."

Under the terms of his probation, Gardner agreed to refrain from all alcohol or drug consumption, except for prescribed medications, not drive, submit to random tests and make a good effort to stay employed.


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