By BOB GIBBINS
Press Staff Writer
TAHLEQUAH — A Kansas City, Kan., man convicted last month on three counts of first-degree manslaughter is scheduled to be in a Cherokee County courtroom this morning.
Anthony Joseph Whitney II, 31, will appear before District Judge Darrell Shepherd for formal sentencing.
The jury that found Whitney guilty has recommended three 50-year sentences for his involvement in a Oct. 27, 2008, crash that killed Rudy Gourd, 52; Eli Gourd, 20; and Russell Gourd, 29.
Whitney’s court-appointed attorney, Crystal Jackson, has filed a motion for a new trial. Shepherd ordered completion of pre-sentence investigation at the conclusion of the trial.
Several members of the Gourd family have already submitted victim impact statements to the court concerning the sentencing.
“My heart has been shattered into a million pieces,” wrote Emily Gourd, Rudy’s daughter and Russell’s and Eli’s sister. “I don’t want to hear an apology.”
If he is sentenced today, Whitney will have to serve 85 percent of any incarceration portion of his sentence before he would be eligible for parole or any kind of release.
