Has Welch served enough time

That question now is before Missouri's Supreme Court after hearing arguments Wednesday on Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson's request to block Circuit Judge Dan Green's order to reduce Welch's original sentences stemming from a fatal DWI accident.

Last December, Green ordered two 15-year sentences for involuntary manslaughter reduced to seven years, and Welch's additional five-year sentences for assault to suspended sentences.

Welch's attorney, James D. "Doug" Barding, told Green last August that Welch's "convictions do not involve "violence or the threat of violence' as defined in any Missouri statute," and everyone involved with Welch's 2008 sentencing - including then-Judge Richard Callahan - "understood" the sentences didn't require Welch to serve 85 percent of the time before he could be considered for release.

Barding also told Green Welch was having health issues that could be treated better outside the prison system.

If the high court agrees with Richardson, Welch would continue serving the original 15 years followed by five-year sentences Callahan imposed in August 2008.

He currently is in the Northeast Correctional Center at Bowling Green.

Welch pleaded guilty in July 2008 to driving while intoxicated on Nov. 4, 2007, driving in the wrong lane of Route C and causing the near head-on collision near Russellville that killed Jean Olsen, 45, and her son, Tobias, 17.

In his Supreme Court argument, Richardson agreed with Barding that state law allows Green to reduce Welch's sentence "under certain narrow conditions - the condition at play in this case is that the defendant must be convicted of a crime that did not involve violence or the threat of violence."

But, Richardson added, the statutory definitions for manslaughter and assault include violence.

"Here, it's not a DWI conviction but an involuntary manslaughter conviction which required ... criminal negligence and causing the deaths of two people."

Husband Eric Olsen, now 48, and daughter Johanna Olsen Henry, now 21, were injured seriously but survived the crash, and had front-row seats in the Supreme Court's hearing room.

"It's very violent," Eric told reporters after the hearing. "You have a truck come over the roof of your car, and the roof of your car comes down and hits you in the face, then comes over your head and hits your kid in the face.

"Is that violent, or what?"

Part of the problem for the lawyers and the court was the lack of a definition of violence in the law Green used to reduce the sentence.

Judge Laura Stith noted the federal courts have determined a driving under the influence conviction doesn't include violence, "because there's no intent - it's a reckless crime."

Barding argued Richardson was asking the court to go where the lawmakers did not go when they wrote the law.

"The Legislature could have said (violence was included) if the crime involved harming somebody or killing somebody or hurting somebody," Barding said.

He said under Richardson's argument, a jaywalker who caused a car to swerve - resulting in a fatal accident - or a person who fell off his roof while doing repairs and killed a neighbor would be committing violence when, in reality, both examples are just unfortunate accidents.

"The prosecutor wants the court to adopt the broadest possible interpretation of that - which criminalizes all manner of innocuous conduct - not a good decision if you're wanting to have the law operate in a logical and consistent way," Barding said after the hearing.

Although they watched the arguments, Eric and Johanna didn't address the Supreme Court.

But, they told reporters, Welch using a pick-up truck while drunk was a use of force.

Johanna, who was 14 when the accident happened added, "You never forget what you've heard and what you've seen.

"I would never, ever wish this on anybody else - so I definitely wish lawmakers would update what "violence' is going to, truly, mean and have a good understanding in the law."