A local family that suffered the loss of two of its members is outraged after a Cole County circuit judge ordered a reduced sentence for the man convicted of manslaughter in their deaths.
Circuit Judge Daniel Green on Friday filled an order to reduce the 20-year collective sentences for Larry Gene Welch. Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson, who was assigned to the case, is preparing a petition to try to stop the court order from going into effect, Richardson wrote in an email.
Welch, 62, Russellville, pleaded guilty in 2008 to driving while intoxicated on Nov. 4, 2007, and causing the accident that killed Jean Olsen, 45, and her son, Tobias Olsen, 17. The wreck also seriously injured Johanna Olsen, then 14, and Eric Olsen, 41, father of the two teens and Jean's husband.
"I am so disgusted with our legal system," Johanna said. "I am disgusted. I am incredibly angry. You can kill two people, serve seven years in prison and you will be out, it's okay. That is kind of what it says to me."
Welch was sentenced to two 15-year concurrent terms for his 2008 involuntary manslaughter convictions, and two five-year concurrent sentences for second-degree assault. The five-year sentences were to be served consecutively with the manslaughter sentences, for a total of 20 years.
Green reduced the 15-year sentences to seven years and suspended the five-year sentences, while replacing them with five years of probation. The terms of the probation are that Welch cannot operate a vehicle without an operational interlock device and will have to wear a SCRAM alcohol monitoring system, all at his expense. The interlock device will keep the vehicle from starting if it registers alcohol on Welch's breath, and the SCRAM monitors usually are attached at the ankle and monitor alcohol levels in perspiration, according to the SCRAM website.
Welch is being held at the Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green, according to the offender search tool on the mo.gov/doc website. The Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) does not comment on any matters of pending litigation, said David Owen, DOC public information officer. However, Welch will probably be released Wednesday, said James Barding, Welch's defense attorney.
Previous Cole County Judge Richard Callahan sentenced Welch and imposed the maximum sentences allowed. The case went to appeal in Kansas City where Welch argued his then attorney, Shane Farrow, was ineffective by misinforming him that he would have to serve only 40 to 50 percent of his sentence prior to parole eligibility, instead of the statutorily required 85 percent, which was applicable to his involuntary manslaughter convictions. The appeals court decided Welch was properly sentenced.
Later, in January 2011, Green denied a motion to reduce the term of Welch's sentences. But then in August 2014, he changed his mind and began deliberating requests to change the sentencing. Barding told Green in a motion for a sentence reduction that Welch's "convictions do not involve "violence or the threat of violence' as defined in any Missouri statute," and everyone involved with the 2008 sentencing - including Callahan - understood the sentences didn't require the 85 percent rule.
That same Missouri statute also states the convicted person can also not be a prior offender, a persistent offender, a dangerous offender or a persistent misdemeanor offender as defined by another Missouri statue.
The classifications of offenders are mostly defined as someone who has pleaded guilty or been found guilty of one or more felonies or Class A or B misdemeanors. Welch has previously pleaded guilty to multiple speeding and failure to wear safety belt citations, as well as having an excessive blood alcohol level (Class C misdemeanor), leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident (Class A misdemeanor), and possessing an unloaded firearm while intoxicated (Class A misdemeanor).
Barding said these offenses do not fall under the category of a persistent misdemeanor offender and the state never tried Welch as one.
In a previous hearing, Dr. Earl Miller, Welch's physician before the accident, told Green that Welch's health is deteriorating while in prison.
"He faces significant health care problems," Miller testified. "In prison, there is little opportunity for recovery."
Welch had a stroke while in jail before the sentences were imposed and wasn't properly treated for it, Miller said. Welch has also claimed he has a hernia the prison's medical staff is ignoring.
"I do not believe that the state sought to have him die in prison," Barding told Green. "I do not think the state sought to have him die at all (but), in reality, this is a sentence that is tantamount to death sentence if, in fact, we credit the testimony of the only medical evidence that we have at this point."
After the vehicle collision, Johanna was wheelchair-bound for seven months, she said. She has had to endure several treatments and therapies, both physical and mental, to start her recovery from the traumatic event that took the lives of her mother and brother. She is now married to Devon Henry, and has changed her last name. Her father, Eric, now lives in Tennessee, she said.
"It is not uniform, there is no set standard," Johanna said about drunken driving laws. "You can look up countless different cases about someone dying from a drunk driving wreck, and they (drunk drivers) will all receive different sentences. I don't feel safe anymore. ... I think there is probably a lot of hatred there and blame."
Johanna said she plans to contact as many legislators as she can to enact stricter drunken driving laws and uniform sentencing. She was thankful for those who support her and her family and added her brother and mother cannot fight, but she can and she will.
"What gives Judge Green the right to let him out?" Eric said. "Why don't we let the people that steal out? They are just stealing and not killing people. ... What are they going to do? Let all the prisoners out because of their health? There are a lot of prisoners that are a lot sicker than he is. It does not make sense."
Green did not return calls for comment.
Staff reporters Bob Watson and Jeff Haldiman contributed to this report.