Andrew Gallo, the driver who killed Angels’ pitcher Nick Adenhart has been sentenced to 51 years-to-life in prison.
In addition to Adenhart, Gallo killed Adenhart’s friends Courtney Frances Stewart and Henry Pearson and critically injured a fourth victim, Jon Wilhite.
I’m not sure how sentencing goes in California, but in jurisdictions I’m familiar with, when you get an “X-years-to-life” sentence, you have to serve at least the X-years part. It’s when you’re merely given a term of years (e.g. “51 years”) that earlier parole is available. I’ll update how it will work in Gallo’s case when I can track it down.
Gallo had been tried on three counts of murder and other offenses, including drunk driving. His blood alcohol content was tested at .19 several hours after the accident. Experts testified at trial that it was likely at .22 at the time of the crash. Testimony had him on a seven-hour drinking binge prior to the crash and travelling at close to 70 miles per hour when the van he was driving struck the car carrying Adenhart.