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Brandon Woman Gets 15 Years For DUI Manslaughter

Photo from the Laurent family

Glen Michael Laurent, known as Michael to his family, was killed in a 2006 crash when Joanna Kinchen ran a red light while drunk and struck his vehicle.

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 14, 2008

Updated: 04/14/2008 06:19 pm

TAMPA – Joanna Kinchen wept and begged for forgiveness Monday in court as she was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for killing Glen Michael Laurent in a 2006 drunken driving crash.

"I'm so sorry for everything I've cost you," she cried out, looking at the victim's family before she was led away. "I know you're having a hard time. Forgive me."

"We will," Laurent's father, William, said.

Assistant State Attorney Kim Seace wanted Circuit Judge Robert Foster to see another side of the 29-year-old Brandon woman, who drank at least half a bottle of Captain Morgan spiced rum before speeding more than 70 mph on U.S. 301 near Causeway Boulevard around 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1, running a red light and slamming into Laurent's car, killing him and seriously wounding his girlfriend, Nuvia Zamora.

A blood test showed Kinchen's alcohol level at 0.18, the highway patrol said. Under Florida law, a person with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 is presumed to be intoxicated.

Joanna Kinchen

Seace played a recording of a telephone conversation Kinchen had with her mother-in-law from the Hillsborough County Jail. Speaking of Laurent's parents, Kinchen said, "They have another son. I know it sounds cruel as hell, but it's not an only child."

Foster also ordered Kinchen to serve five years' probation, a suspended sentence, after her prison time, during which she is to receive mental health treatment and serve 200 hours of community service work talking to women in jail and on probation about the dangers of drinking and driving.

Defense attorney Scott Boardman presented testimony from physician Joseph Molea, an expert in addictive medicine and a psychoneurologist. He testified Kinchen has a substance abuse problem, personality disorder and a generalized anxiety disorder.

"I understand generalized anxiety disorder," William Laurent said. He has that condition, he said, precipitated by his son's death, and is receiving treatment.

William Laurent said his son carried with him a list of positive affirmations: "Love surrounds and guides us all. … I'm thankful for the ability to make people happy. … I love to make people smile."

He had a new girlfriend and had confided to his parents, "She's the one," William Laurent said. "We are grateful to God that Michael was in our lives for 29 years. He would have been a fantastic father. We do not hate Joanna Kinchen. We don't know Joanna Kinchen. We know Michael would forgive her, and we do, too. But we want to see justice done."

Zamora said she lost her soul mate. "I lost my love in the blink of an eye. As he died right next to me, I couldn't do anything to save him as I was critically injured as well."

In one of his poems, she said, he wrote, "I float through the air and I rest on the clouds."

"I know that some day I will be with him," she said, "But for now, I want justice."

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