From Topeka Capital Journal
MARYSVILLE — Sabetha resident Lucylle Cannon wept in the Marshall County District Courtroom this past Tuesday. With a visibly shaking hand, she tried to wipe away the tears on her face.
Cannon was grieving for two lost lives: her 88-year-old husband, Milburn “Bud” Cannon, who was fatally injured two years ago by a drunken and texting driver in an accident on US-36 highway east of Marysville, and Ben O’Neil, the young driver whom she had kept from serving a long prison sentence in September 2011 to give him a second chance but now was facing incarceration because of a probation violation.
Nineteen days after serving eight months on a DUI charge and being released from jail, O’Neil went to a bar in Nebraska and drank so much alcohol he tested 0.3 percent on a preliminary breath test later at his home. A 0.3 percent rating is about four times more than the legal intoxication limit of .08 percent.
Marshall County District Court Judge James A. Patton asked Cannon if she wanted to make a statement before he sentenced O’Neil to prison. This time, she wouldn’t come to O’Neil’s defense. ….MORE