COLUSA - A trainee driver, who crashed a "gambler's special" bus into a ditch in a horrific accident that killed eleven people and injured dozens more, was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years and four months in state prison.
Members of the Hmong and lu Mien communities from Sacramento looked on as a judge in this rural county's historic, 1861 court house set the punishment for Quintin Joey Watts of Stockton.
Watts, 53, was convicted Oct. 8 on 11 counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and 21 counts of causing great bodily injury.
The jury verdict came about a year after Watts lost control of his bus in October 2008 while driving 41 people to the Colusa Casino Resort.
At the 5 p.m. sentencing Wednesday, the victims' relatives watched as Watts rose, turned and faced them, crying, pleading for understanding.
"I would like to address everyone out there," said Watts, who stood, shackled, in an orange, striped jail suit. "I want you to know that I'm very sorry. I cannot take back what happened. What happened was not intentional. It was a big mistake."
But Colusa Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Thompson was neither persuaded by Watts nor a plea by defense attorney Albert Smith for a nine-year sentence on grounds that Watts was a tired, overworked employee who crashed the bus while trying to do his job.
"The defendant has demonstrated little or no appreciation for his role in bringing about this immense tragedy," Thompson said.
Watts will have to serve 85 percent of his 26-year, four-month sentence. He could have received a maximum of 76 years in prison in the accident that killed, injured and psychologically traumatized his mostly elderly immigrant passengers.
They were headed from Sacramento for an outing of casino gambling when an apparently exhausted Watts swerved the bus off a straight, narrow country road near Williams and plowed into a ditch.
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