CLEARWATER A 28-year-old Clearwater man was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday, a year after he was involved in a drunken-driving wreck that left a 51-year-old motorcyclist dead.
Simon Holmes' sentence will be followed by two years of community control, and then five years of probation.
Holmes avoided the 10.375-year minimum sentence for anyone who is convicted of driving under the influence—manslaughter but has no prior record.
He did so after his attorneys asked Circuit Judge Thane Covert to depart downward from the minimum mandatory sentence because, among other things, Holmes was remorseful, prosecutors said.
The most lenient sentence Covert could have meted out under state law was four years.
On Sept. 20, 2010, at 4:50 a.m., Holmes was driving a car east on State Road 590, between McMullen-Booth Road and U.S. 19, when he turned in front of an oncoming motorcycle as he pulled into his driveway, Clearwater police said at the time.
The motorcyclist, Mark Nolf of Clearwater, died from his injuries. Nolf, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from his 2005 Suzuki motorcycle upon impact.
At the time of the collision, Holmes had a mild odor of alcohol on his breath, and his eyes were red and glassy, according to an arrest affidavit. He volunteered to give investigators a sample of his blood, and some taken one hour after the wreck showed his blood-alcohol percentage to be 0.165 and 0.164.
A driver in Florida is presumed intoxicated if his percentage is 0.08 or more.
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