The fact that the man who struck and killed Garrett Williams' mother a year and a half ago in a St. Francis Drive crosswalk will serve nearly three years in prison didn't mean much to him on Tuesday.

"It's not going to make me feel better either way," Williams said after the 3 1/2 -hour sentencing hearing for Christopher Lavone. "It doesn't bring her back."

The only good thing about the hearing, he said, was that it marked the end of the legal process. "I'm glad it's over," Williams said.

Lavone struck Sarah Williams, 52, about 8:30 p.m. March 31, 2007, as she attempted to cross St. Francis Drive at Camino de las Crucitas on her way to DeVargas Center. Lavone then drove to the area of the Tesuque post office, where police found him sitting in the woods behind the building, said prosecutor Anthony Rivera.

By the time he was tested for alcohol more than 2 1/2 hours after the accident, his breath-alcohol content was .10, above the legal driving limit of .08. He pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in July and faced up to six years in prison Tuesday.

Lavone's friends and family Tuesday blamed post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his service in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 for his leaving the scene of the accident. However, his lawyer pointed to a reconstruction of the accident by a state police investigator, which subscribed blame for the accident on both Lavone and Sarah Williams and wondered aloud whether Lavone might have hit her if he was sober.

The reconstructionist, Paul Chavez, found Lavone was likely driving 35 mph, the speed limit, at the time and the light was changing from green to yellow, said Steve Aarons, Lavone's attorney. Chavez found some evidence Lavone tried to avoid Sarah Williams, though there were no skid marks, he said. In addition, Sarah Williams was wearing dark clothing, and the intersection was not well lit.

"(Sarah Williams) was crossing St. Francis without having the right of way," Aarons said.

She was struck in the crosswalk as she crossed the northbound lanes of St. Francis. Her body was thrown about 100 feet and landed in the left-turn lane of the road's southbound lanes, Rivera said. The prosecutor asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of six years and find the crime was of a serious violent nature, meaning Lavone would have to serve 85 percent of it.

Many of Sarah Williams' friends and family also urged state District Judge Stephen Pfeffer to impose the maximum sentence. They spoke of her love of children, trees and charity work. They spoke of their intense grief and anger because Lavone has been able to get on with his life by getting married and fathering a child since the accident.

"Any description of her will inevitably fall short," Garrett Williams said. "I've sustained a loss I'll never truly recover from."

Lisa Freeman said Sarah Williams' death was not only a loss for her, but for the community as a whole. "Sarah Williams was one of the best people I've ever known," she said. "She was a person of enormous integrity. I was honored to be her friend."

Lavone's friends and family painted a picture of a gentle father — he has a 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage — who worked with children with special health care needs and struggled with PTSD for years. "This is not a violent person," said Lynn Christiansen, Lavone's employer. "He's a very kind person, a loving person."

Some of Lavone's family and friends turned to the Williams family and friends and apologized. When it came time for him to speak, Lavone did the same. "I want everyone to know how horrible I feel for the mistakes that I made and that I'm very sorry," he said. "A wonderful person is dead because of me, and I can't take that back."

Pfeffer admitted Lavone has done some good things in his life, hasn't committed any other crimes, served his country in war and "paid dearly for it." The judge said he believed Lavone's case of PTSD was debilitating and real, though he thought Lavone "was somewhat too satisfied" with the disorder as the reason for the accident.

However, society demands punishment for Lavone's crime, Pfeffer said. "Frankly, there's no free bite of the apple when you get intoxicated, get in a car and kill someone," he said. "There has to be consequences."

With that, Pfeffer sentenced Lavone to 4 1/2 years in prison. He also ruled the crime was a serious violent offense because Lavone left Sarah Williams lying in the road where she was in danger of being hit again.

Lavone has been on electronic monitoring or in jail since the accident, so he gets credit for about a year and a half of time served. That means he will likely serve two years and nine months in prison before he's eligible for release, Aarons said.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.