Daniel Gilcreast, the driver who struck and killed Avi Schaefer '13 last February, was sentenced to eight years in the Adult Corrections Institution in an emotionally charged hearing yesterday.
Magistrate Judge William McAtee handed down a 15-year sentence for Schaefer's death and a 10-year sentence for injuring Marika Baltscheffsky '13 in the same incident. Gilcreast will only be required to serve eight years for both sentences. He was also sentenced to pay a $6,000 fine and have his driver's license suspended upon release from prison.
The 24-year-old Gilcreast was arrested Feb. 12, 2010, after striking Schaefer and Baltscheffsky at the intersection of Hope and Thayer streets. A passenger in the vehicle warned Gilcreast of the pedestrians, but he did not stop.
Gilcreast was the first person in Rhode Island forced to submit to a blood alcohol test under a law passed in November 2009. Gilcreast's blood alcohol content was .220, more than three times the legal limit, at the time of the accident.
Gilcreast pleaded no contest to two of five counts — driving under the influence, death resulting, as well as driving under the influence, serious injury resulting.
The remaining three counts — driving to endanger, death resulting, driving to endanger, personal injury resulting and possession of marijuana, first offense — were dismissed.
Schaefer's parents, his twin brother Yoav Schaefer and several of his friends attended the sentencing. In lieu of a statement from the attorney general, the family presented a video in Schaefer's memory before speaking to the court. The video contained clips of Schaefer being interviewed in Hebrew, photos of him and friends and brief statements from friends about how he inspired and taught them.
"Avi Schaefer was — and continues to be — my hero," one friend said in the video. Sami Jarbawi '12, who identified himself as Schaefer's Palestinian friend, spoke of how Schaefer "proved to me that friendship has no limits." Schaefer, a former Israeli soldier, worked to improve Israeli-Palestinian relations on campus.
The video also displayed written quotes, including a statement by President Ruth Simmons. Several of Schaefer's friends were moved to tears by the display.
Laurie Gross-Schaefer, Schaefer's mother, spoke of her final conversations with her son and the void his death caused. She expressed concern for his three brothers, including his twin, "who can stand at the mirror and see Avi's face but not feel him by his side." It is important to nurture the seed Schaefer planted in his short life, she said.
Schaefer's father, Arthur Gross-Schaefer, spoke about the Avi Schaefer Fund, created to support constructive dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at North American universities in his son's memory.
He described the fund as the family's way of continuing Schaefer's legacy, and he encouraged Gilcreast to find his own. "Be Avi's voice, as Avi has lost his voice," he told Gilcreast.
"I do not seek excessive punishment," he said. He then described the four steps he believes Gilcreast needs to take for redemption — none of which involve imprisonment or financial restitution.
Gilcreast said in a statement to the court, "There is nothing I can say or do to make right the horrifying events." He acknowledged through tears that his actions "have drastically changed the course of many families and friends," including that of his own family and those of Schaefer and Baltscheffsky.
McAttee described this case as among the most difficult he has ever heard in 22 years on the bench. He told the court he could "certainly appreciate what an incredible person (Schaefer) must have been."
