Celebrity Justice
Lane Garrison Sentenced to Prison

A judge has sentenced "Prison Break" star Lane Garrison to a total of forty months -- nearly four years -- in state prison for the drunk driving crash that caused the death of 17-year-old Vahagn Setian.


As he sentenced him, Judge Elden Fox told Lane he thought he was a human being who made a very bad mistake -- and that he committed a crime and devastated three families.


Fox told Garrison, "I think you are truly remorseful," but sentenced him to prison because "the public needs to know crimes like this need to be punished and, unfortunately, you have to be the messenger." The sentence was based on Garrison's lack of prior criminal history and that he admitted responsibility, pleaded guilty right away and has offered the families financial assistance.

Before sentencing, a highly emotional Garrison told the victims' families he was "genuinely remorseful" and "sickened" by his behavior that night.

Garrison he will get credit for the 91 days he has already served. That, combined with California's Work Time/Good Time early release program, means he will likely be in state prison for about 20 months.

He must also pay close to $300,000 to the Setian family and to the two girls who were in the car.

Lane was quiet after the sentence was handed down and was taken away in handcuffs.

Reader Comments

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76. Wow, less than 4 years for killing another human being....Dang judge that was harsch....

Posted at 2:35PM on Oct 31st 2007 by Puddin

77. #6 GUBBE

WHAT THE F ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU IDIOT...HE GOT 40 MONTHS not 1 WEEK! and he's aleady been in jail for 3 months! GFYS

Posted at 2:37PM on Oct 31st 2007 by criddler

78. I love how people like to point fingers.

The way it seems, everyone that posts their comments on these boards have "never" done the things these people have. If you have gotten behind the wheel of a car with one drop of alcohol in your system then you are wrong. And for those of you that have driven drunk, you are lucky that you didn't kill someone yourself. I myself have gotten behind the wheel before my fair share of times while intoxicated. Not proud of it but I know that I will not ever do it again.

As for the case on Lane, they were all wrong. He was old enough to know better. He should have never had those children in is car. And on that note, those children should have never gotten into his car. They are teenagers. They are not completely stupid. They know (knew) right from wrong.

Posted at 2:40PM on Oct 31st 2007 by Mel

79. I don't think he should have gotten that long of time, if he wasn't a star guess what he would have gotten less. Yes he is partly to blame but some of the blame have to go to all then were in his car. They too should have known better but they had to blame somebody but each other. Sorry to say but even the person that was killed was also responsible for his own action he wasn't a 3 year he was old enough to know wrong from right.

Posted at 4:55PM on Oct 31st 2007 by martha

80. How do you people really look at these cases by race or by the way they look because i see all the same people on this site talking about rappers like they deserve it. But this guy can KILL some body and ur saying how bad you feel for him and the family to theones that were killed!!! The people on TMZ are evil!!

Posted at 7:51PM on Nov 2nd 2007 by Blind

81. "With credit for time served and 1/3rd off for good behavior this guy will be out of jail long before the dead boy's mother has finished going through 1 school year without him, 1 homecoming dance he wont attend, 1 soccer season he wont play, 1 set of family birthdays he wont attend."

Don't forget all the drunken parties too!

Posted at 2:40PM on Oct 31st 2007 by cj

82. # 68 - the very words "unwritten law" are contradictory. And again - his passengers were MINORS and he's an adult. The young man who died was certainly punished - he's dead! Following your idiotic line of "logic" if you think all parties are equally responsible then Lane Garrison deserves the death penalty.

You don't know the law, you don't know what you're talking about so shut the hell up.

Posted at 2:41PM on Oct 31st 2007 by Kitty

83. I think this sentence was completely fair. As someone who has suffered through the trauma of this myself, and knew the person who committed the crime of driving while intoxicated, I don't see this sentence of 40 months (or 20 after good behavior) as being too light or too harsh. He will pay for this for the rest of his life, whether it's through his own conscience, public opinion, or even discrimination for his own stupidity. And he should pay. But bear in mind that these kids knowingly got into the car with him, were manipulating him to purchase more alcohol for them, and did so knowing that he was already intoxicated. We all know the risks of drinking and driving, or drugging and driving. It's incidents like this that force us to face our own morality....to question whether or not we would be stupid enough, or intoxicated enough to a) drive a vehicle in that condition or b) get into a vehicle driven by someone in that condition.
The real tragedies happen everyday, while this is getting attention because the man happened to be a celebrity. What about the people who die when a drunk driver hits their car? What about the people who die from hit and runs? The ones whose cases do not come into the public eye because they're not committed by a celebrity?
Those are the real innocents. Those are the people we should be fighting for when it comes to stricter legislation. #65 got it right....if you have a problem with the laws, fight to change them!

Posted at 3:23PM on Oct 31st 2007 by Sepelia

84. Prison is for reformation is it not? If he has already recognized the error of his ways (which is clear he has) what does putting him in prison for any longer than sentenced accomplish? It doesn't bring back the child that died or “uninjured” the others. I agree that this is a reasonable sentence. I think people fail to self-reflect....who's fault was it really that those children weren't home WITH their parents and were in the car in the first place? OH wow, yeah I just said that! So the children and parents had NO responsibility whatsoever!?? RIGHT!!!! What are people teaching their kids...when you make a mistake blame someone else!? Yup sounds about right with parenting these days!

Posted at 2:42PM on Oct 31st 2007 by sydjulia22

85.

I'm not saying his sentence is right or wrong. He gets points in my books for being remorseful and standing up and pleading guilty and not putting the families through a trial.

And yes, I also believe that those young adults should not have asked him to go in and buy them more alcohol, they shouldn't have decided to get in the car with him, etc.

This case does involve a death, which would also weigh heavily.

No, I do not believe the other surviving young adults should be recompensed for their ignorance/stupidity. Just because they were drunk (and wanting to get drunker) doesn't mean that they shouldn't also be held accountable. They and their families need to accept that they were at fault also.

I'd like to think that if I were one of those kids, I would have been yanking arms and screaming at my friends not to get in the car. But then again, if I was drunk and/or high also, I might have been guilty of making the same decision.

I'm sure the judge took into account that Lane Garrison didn't apparently hunt down some innocent (sober) kids and say, "Hey, lets party! Hop in!"

Posted at 2:42PM on Oct 31st 2007 by OCD

86. Yet again another slap on the hand for celebs. If you drink and drive you should be locked in a mental facility for life. Morons, all of you I say.

Posted at 2:44PM on Oct 31st 2007 by Mr. Black

87. At least ole boy manned up and took responsibility, not like that pervert who fainted. I hope he comes out a better person in the end and he will.

Posted at 2:46PM on Oct 31st 2007 by anonymous

88. ...at the very least ..all of this publicity might make some kids make the right decisions on Halloween !

Posted at 2:47PM on Oct 31st 2007 by jr

89. This certainly wasn't celebrity justice like all these other spoiled ass people got. I think that's alot of time for manslaughter...

Posted at 1:36PM on Nov 1st 2007 by Girly

90. #70 - I could not agree more with your comment. It is easy to sit back and judge Lane Garrison for his actions however if at any point in time during your life you have driven after drinking or gotten in the car with someone who had been drinking - you are just as guilty as he is however you got lucky. Unfortunately for Mr. Garrison and the young man who was killed, their luck ran out that night.

Posted at 2:52PM on Oct 31st 2007 by JEB

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