A Carroll judge yesterday halved the 10-year auto manslaughter and drunken-driving sentence of a Montgomery County man whose best friend died in a 1992 crash he caused.
When he sentenced Wade Mendes in 1993, Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. called the incident one of the worst automobile manslaughter cases he had handled.
But the judge said yesterday during the brief sentence-reduction hearing, "There is no doubt in my mind, that in this period of time, he is truly sorry for what happened."
Mendes pleaded guilty in January 1993 to automobile manslaughter and drunken driving in the July 13, 1992, death of Russell Adam Jones, 29. Mr. Jones, described as Mendes' best friend, was the son of Dr. Richard Jones, a former Carroll medical examiner.
Steven D. Kupferberg, Mendes' lawyer, said the sentence-reduction hearing was necessary because the term that Judge Burns imposed -- 10 years in prison and five years of probation -- on the auto manslaughter count was illegal.
Under state law, if a maximum sentence such as the one imposed on Mendes is ordered, a judge cannot force the defendant to serve probation once the sentence is completed.
In striking his 1993 sentence, Judge Burns imposed a seven-year prison term, but suspended two years of the sentence, effectively making the defendant's incarceration five years. Because he already has served two years, Mendes should be eligible for parole almost immediately, Mr. Kupferberg said.
"This was really his last chance, and it turned out about how we hoped it would," Mr. Kupferberg said. "This was a terrible disaster all the way around."
According to police reports and court records, Mendes, 50, of Wheaton and Mr. Jones were on their way to a restaurant when Mendes turned his 1970 Chevrolet Nova onto Route 97, headed south and sped at more than 80 mph in a 55-mile zone.
As Mendes approached the Morgan Run Bridge, "he lost control of [the] car, struck the guardrail, continued to slide and began to roll over," court records say.
The accident sent Mendes to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, where his blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.18 percent, nearly twice the legal limit in Maryland.
Traces of cocaine and marijuana also were found in his blood. Mendes was living at Russell Jones' farm at the time of the accident.
Judge Burns yesterday still insisted that the accident was one of the worst he has ever handled.
"This accident never should have happened. It never should have happened," the judge said.
He said that when he imposed the 10-year sentence -- twice as long as that recommended by prosecutors -- Mendes' speed and his use of cocaine, alcohol and marijuana played a "big role."
Mr. Kupferberg yesterday acknowledged Mendes' history of substance abuse dating to the 1970s, but he said his client has been drug and alcohol free in prison and has been a loyal participant in Alcoholics Anonymous.