‘Callousness’

Dear Editor:

RE: Halliburtons sentenced in Lucas Shortreed hit-and-run case, Oct. 5.

I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t seen those roadside signs asking for help in solving, what was until a year ago a cold case.

I’ve been looking at Lucas’ face ever since the first sign went up 10-plus years ago and I couldn’t help but feel for the Shortreed family.

Closure is important in these horrific instances, but when I read the sentences handed down by Justice Stanley, I was very disappointed in our judicial system. Thirty months in prison and six months of house arrest for wilfully hiding their guilt seems light to me.

To claim, as David Halliburton claimed, that even if he were “stone cold sober” it would of been the same result. Then why didn’t he do the right thing and call 911?

I suspect the “few beers” he had were more than a few, based on the fact he decided to run off and hide his involvement in this horrific crime for the next 15 years. And his wife’s complicity makes this horrible “accident” even more heinous.

Purposely changing VINs and registration, hiding the car, lying to their 11-year-old, etc. exhibit a degree of callousness usually reserved for the most cold blooded of killers. Nope, two and a half years in prison for the husband and six months of house arrest for the wife seems a far cry from what it should have been.

Maybe Justice Stanley considered the 15 years of living with their “guilt” equivalent to “time served”.

To me they both should have received the same sentence as Lucas did – life.

Brett Davis, Orton