Gray called 911 and said he was the victim of a hit-and-run, police said. He never asked for help for Barnett and Ortiz, a move that Assistant District Attorney Lisa Ferrick called “unconscionable.”

From Erie Times News
Marcus V. Gray’s 5-year-old daughter was not in court on Wednesday.
She was not there when her father was sentenced to four to eight years in state prison for driving drunk — he was more than three times over the legal limit — and causing an accident that killed a 24-year-old Erie man in January.
But the girl’s presence was felt throughout the proceeding.
Gray referred to his daughter as he apologized to the family of the victim, Letoinne Barnett. Gray said he dropped off his daughter at school just before the sentencing, and realized how Barnett would never have children.
Gray, crying, turned to the gallery and the approximately 30 friends and relatives of Barnett.
“I cheated a lot of people out of an experience,” Gray said.
The victim’s mother, Sandra Barnett, mentioned Gray’s daughter as she spoke of her only son.
“No more cakes, no more favorite meals, no more playing with his sister. It is all gone,” Sandra Barnett said.
“Every time you put a drink to your mouth that contains alcohol,” she said to Gray, “I want you to think of how you would feel if the next time you saw your daughter, she was gone.”
Erie County Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. alluded to parenthood as he reflected on the case.
“You need to be punished for what you did,” DiSantis told Gray, 26. “You have left a void that can never be filled.
“Time can dull the pain, but time can never erase the pain of a parent who loses a child, because it is not the natural order of things.” …MORE