Driver receives 21 years for DUI deaths

The video showed images of a happy, smiling Brittany McFarland, a 20-year-old aspiring nurse described as full of life.

Interspersed were images of McFarland's Buick - which was crushed by a drunken driver - and images of her body in a casket.

Randy Archiquette, the man who killed her and 69-year-old Betty Williams during a 30-minute series of crashes in April 2009, was sentenced Friday to more than 21 years in prison.

"You robbed her of her life, and I loathe you for that," McFarland's brother Josh told Archiquette. "I hope you die and rot in jail."

Archiquette, 41, of Riverview, had faced up to life imprisonment. He pleaded guilty in November to two counts of driving under the influence-manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crash.

When released from prison, Archiquette is sentenced to nearly 24 years of probation.

Archiquette had made an open plea, meaning prosecutors didn't agree to a sentencing recommendation. The only concession they made was to merge the vehicular homicide charges Archiquette faced into the DUI-manslaughter charges.

Archiquette said he had no excuse for driving drunk and doesn't remember much about it.

"Knowing that I have taken the lives of two fine people is sometimes more than I can bear," he said.

After the crashes, Archiquette's blood-alcohol level was 0.091 percent; state law presumes impairment at 0.08 percent. He also had several prescription drugs in his system, including oxycodone and hydrocodone.

Judge Tom Barber said he didn't think Archiquette intentionally tried to kill.

"I do think that you are genuinely remorseful and have accepted responsibility," Barber told him.

McFarland's mother, Rachelle, said she was "horrified" by the 21-year sentence and that she had hoped for life. She goes to the cemetery daily to visit her daughter and told Archiquette Friday that she wants to "dig her out of the ground you put her in."

Williams' daughter, Betty King, said she doesn't believe in judging the sentence Barber imposed.

"The lord is our judge, and the decision was up to the judge," she said.

King said her mother was a loving, caring woman who had worked as a seamstress and a nursing assistant. She said her family had suffered terribly after the death but that she forgave Archiquette.

"I have to forgive you because I want to go to heaven," she told him. "If I don't forgive man, God won't forgive me."

On April 13, 2009, Archiquette's 2007 Chevrolet Yukon first rear-ended a tractor-trailer on Adamo Drive, then sideswiped a Ford Crown Victoria near North 39th Street.

The Yukon then hit Williams' 1994 Geo from behind on Florida Avenue, forcing it into a pole before veering into traffic and striking McFarland's Buick head-on.

Archiquette had no prior criminal record in the state, Department of Law Enforcement records show.

Mark Ruiz, a clinical psychologist, said Archiquette suffered post-traumatic stress disorder because of his time overseas for the Army. Through that, Ruiz said, Archiquette developed an addiction to alcohol and prescription medication.

"He didn't premeditate it," Ruiz said of Archiquette's actions in April 2009. "He didn't wake up in the morning and say, 'I'm going to go out and kill two people.' "

Archiquette was aware he had a problem but said he didn't enter a 28-day treatment program before the crashes because he feared he would lose his job with the military.

Josh McFarland told Archiquette that it's "dishonorable" and "cowardly" to hide behind the shield of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I wish you died that day and not her," he told Archiquette. "The ones that act stupid never die."

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