Driving with no license costs more than jail time

Ron Locklear slowly flipped through a photo album filled with pictures of his wife of 13 years. As he did, he told Eyewitness News the memories from those pictures are all he has to hold onto her now.  His wife, Jill Hartgrove, died in October 2011 in Harrisburg. The couple was driving home when their car broke down. After they pulled over, Hartgrove was flagging down cars for help when she was hit by an SUV.

Locklear described the crash and said, "A real loud, real loud noise, and I knew then she was dead. That very second. I got down in the middle of the road where she was at, I was holding her in my arms and I said, 'Baby please don't die on me.'"

The man driving that SUV was Kendrick Neely.  At the time, he was charged with driving while his license was revoked. Officials at the Mecklenburg County courthouse said records show he was charged with driving while his license was revoked at least nine times since 1993. The Department of Motor Vehicles said his license was permanently taken away in 1995 after three of those convictions. “I think if he wouldn't have been on the road, she would be alive today," Locklear said.

Channel 9 wanted to ask Neely why he was driving at all after all of those convictions, so we stopped by the address listed on his records. However, a woman who answered the door said he didn't live there and she did not know who he was.

Neely spent time in jail for some of the charges. Officials at the Mecklenburg County courthouse said his sentences ranged from seven to ninety days. Locklear wants to know why the penalties were not harsher, given the fact that Neely had so many convictions.

Under North Carolina law, the maximum jail time for the misdemeanor charge of driving while your license is revoked, no matter how many times a driver is caught, is 120 days, less than in some other states. Bruce Lillie, an assistant district attorney who oversees misdemeanor cases in Mecklenburg County, said, "You don't often see that particular sentence given out."

Lillie said every week they see people with repeat charges of driving while their license is revoked. He said it is easy for defendants to appeal a judge's decision and opt to take the case to a jury trial in Superior Court, and that is tough for the District Attorney's office, which has to prioritize where they allocate their resources and trial time. "Am I going to spend it on a person with a driving while license revoked charge or am I going to spend it on a habitual felon?" Lillie said.

Eyewitness News took the issue to North Carolina State Senator Bob Rucho, who said it concerns him. His staff is now researching the penalties in other states to see if they are more effective at keeping potentially dangerous drivers off the road. "Why do we have a law if people aren't going to abide by it?" Rucho said.

Rucho also said he hopes to introduce legislation with harsher penalties during the legislature's long session next year when the bill would be eligible for consideration. That is a bit of comforting news to Ron Locklear, who said, "If you feel like I feel right now, you would do something about it."