Published: May 31, 2008 08:33 am         

Ames man gets maximum in death of Bainbridge teen

Pleaded guilty in '07 I-88 death

&bylineBy Tom Grace

Cooperstown News Bureau

ONEONTA _ In an emotional session of Otsego County Court held in Oneonta on Friday, Joseph F. Parsons III was sentenced to 7½-to-15 years in prison for first-degree vehicular manslaughter.

Parsons, 27, of Ames, was at the wheel of a pickup truck that crashed July 1 on Interstate 88 in Worcester, killing passenger Gregory C. Conover of Bainbridge. In March, he pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.

Before pronouncing sentence, Otsego County Judge Brian Burns listened to comments from John Lambert, the county's chief assistant district attorney; Garo Gozigian, Parsons' attorney; and Conover's parents, Tammy and Jeffrey Conover.

Tammy Conover moved others in the courtroom to tears when she told Burns how her son's death had affected her and her family.

``Each day it doesn't get better," she said. ``When Greg died, I also died inside."

Her son and his younger sister had been at the center of their family's lives, she said. Not long after Gregory died, her daughter asked her, ``Now who am I going to have to grow old with?"

Jeffrey Conover said his son, a standout wrestler and 2006 graduate of Bainbridge-Guilford Central School, had made him proud with his achievements. But since his sudden death at age 19, ``I wake every day, hoping for answers."

Looking around the courtroom, he said that ``everyone could possibly be put in the situation we're in, forced to feel the deep and horrible pain.

"Every day is a life sentence," Conover said, asking Burns to show Parsons ``no mercy."

Lambert noted that Parsons had a criminal history, while Gozigian argued that Parsons had voluntarily pleaded guilty without negotiating a sentence.

In discussing what would transpire in court Friday, Gozigian said Parsons had told him, ``Sorry doesn't cut it," because he realizes the irreparable harm he has caused.

Burns said Parsons' criminal history, which includes convictions for driving while ability impaired, DWI and reckless endangerment, shows that the events of last July 1 were ``foreseeable and not an accident.

``Mr. Parsons represents a risk to our society, and that has to stop," the judge said, then meted out the maximum possible sentence, which includes a two-to-four year concurrent prison sentence for DWI, a $250 surcharge, a $25 DWI surcharge, a $50 DNA collection fee and a $20 crime victims' fee.