HOUSTON -- Anger filled a Harris County courtroom Thursday afternoon as jurors decided the punishment for a drunken driver who killed a young husband and wife would be 8 years in prison.
“Certainly the message that got delivered today is that there was no justice in Houston, Texas,” said Ron Harris, whose daughter Christie Bordelon and son-in-law Kevin Bordelon were killed in a drunken driving crash on Highway 6 on December 26, 2008.
Ineka Marble was speeding an estimated 86 mph and had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit when she ran a red light and broadsided the victims’ car. Testimony at the trial showed the Bordelons died instantly, both from broken necks, and first responders say they found the couple in their demolished car still holding hands.
Marble suffered minor injuries and was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter. Prosecutors offered her a plea deal of 18 years in prison but she decided to admit her guilt and take her chances on the punishment phase with a jury.
Thursday prosecutors asked for a combined sentence of 40 years in prison. Defense attorneys asked only for probation, arguing that she was responsible for a horrible mistake, that it was her very first DWI and that her life shouldn’t be thrown away as well.
Jurors deliberated for more than four hours and came back with a compromise: 4 years for each death.
“Very disappointed,” Bill Bordelon, Kevin Bordelon’s father, said. “I felt that four years per person is not sending a message to anyone that’s drinking and driving and killed someone. It demeans my son and daughter-in-law’s life that their life was only worth four years each.”
Harris agreed.
“It’s devastating,” he said. “I feel like part of my heart has been ripped out. They compromised. It’s unbelievable.”
Both families hoped that a stronger verdict would have sent a message to Marble and to other potential drunken drivers.
“I’m very frustrated. It’s just very hurtful what happened today. I don’t think justice was in our court today,” said Harris. “I’m very easy going and very forgiving. But I am angry and frustrated at both what she did and what the justice system did today.”
Intoxication manslaughter is a second-degree felony in Texas with an average sentence range of two to 10 years in prison.
In a similar Harris County DWI case profiled previously on 11 News, DWI suspect Honorato Marcos Rios accepted a plea deal and chose not to stand trial for the intoxication manslaughter deaths of two young girls. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
