TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) – An actress who appeared in the soap opera “Melrose Place” in prime time in the 90s of last century, lost an attempt to reduce her sentence in a fatal car accident in 2010.
A New Jersey court of appeals rejected Amy Locain’s arguments in a ruling released Tuesday.
Locaine was convicted of manslaughter and other charges in the crash that killed 60-year-old Helen Siman and seriously injured Siman’s wife, Fred. Although she was not charged with drunk driving, a state expert testified that Locaine’s blood alcohol level was probably about three times the legal limit and that she drove at approximately 53 miles per hour (85 kilometers per hour) at 35 miles per hour (56- kph) zone at the time of the crash in the town of Montgomery, near Princeton.
Locaine has been convicted four times after courts of appeals ruled the first two sentences were too lenient and a third failed to follow the guidelines he set out in a previous ruling.
She had already spent more than two years in prison and was released by 2020, when Supreme Court Justice Angela Borkowski sentenced her to eight years.
In a ruling Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that Borkowski had rightly given more weight to aggravating circumstances – such as the gravity of the offense and Locaine’s decision to drive while intoxicated – than to mitigating factors such as a lack of previous case file and Locaine Rehabilitation.
The court also rejected Locaine’s argument that Borkowski should have resigned, as the law firm representing Locaine had once represented Borkowski’s niece in a municipal trafficking case.
Locaine received credit for the time she served when she was convicted in 2020 and is eligible for parole in December 2024, according to the State Department of Corrections website.
Locane’s lawyer, James Wronko, did not comment on Tuesday’s ruling.
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