July 06 2006 - Drunk driver could get prison term

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ST. CHARLES, Mo., Jul 2, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The families of two Missouri teens killed in a car crash almost 30 years ago say they hope the driver, now 43, will finally get a long prison term.

Anthony Roberson has accumulated six convictions for being drunk at the wheel of a car or boat since he killed his classmates Sherry Aldridge and Gary Stief in 1979. He had been drinking when he struck a tree -- but was sentenced only to 30 weekends in jail, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said.

He later served 10 months for violating probation.

His latest arrest follows a 2005 law that allows "chronic offenders" to be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

"This guy is like an eel that seems to kind of slither along and has no intention -- I don't think -- of ever changing his behavior," St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas said.

Like Roberson, the two victims were 16 in 1979. They were talking on the porch of the Aldridge home in Glasgow Village, when Roberson and two other teens asked them if they wanted to go for a ride.

Lisa Aldridge, Sherry's 10-year-old sister, who accompanied them, said they did not realize until they were in the car that Roberson had been drinking.

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