Thursday, 4:30 PM
Parents object to sentence in hit-and-run that killed Cape teen
By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
BARNSTABLE -- The parents of a 14-year-old boy knocked off his bicycle and killed in a hit-and-run two years ago excoriated the driver today as he was sentenced to serve 3 1/2 years in jail.
"You ran away and left him there like an animal, and for that, I damn you to hell," said the boy’s mother, Lorraine Brown.
The driver, Keith MacArthur, 29, said little today in Barnstable Superior Court as he pleaded guilty to negligent motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of the accident after causing the death of Matthew Brown. More than 80 people crowded the courtroom, including some of the victim’s relatives who wore hockey jerseys in honor of Brown that bore his initials and his number 3.
According to police and prosecutors, Brown was riding his bicycle with two friends on the shoulder of Route 6A in Yarmouth in October 2005. Driving a maroon Mitsubishi Diamante, MacArthur hit Brown from behind and he was thrown 72 feet through in the air before landing on a front lawn.
Brown was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, where his mother is a nurse’s aide. Lorraine Brown recalled today watching her coworkers perform CPR on her son, but she told them to stop because it was obvious he was gone. MacArthur turned himself in to police in the next morning.
In court today, Judge Richard Connon sentenced MacArthur to serve 3 1/2 years in the house of correction with an additional year suspended. Once he is released, MacArthur will be on probation for five years. The sentence was less than the five to seven years in state prison recommended by prosecutors. That angered Brown’s parents.
"They are putting a tag of three years on a 14-year-old boy who lost 60 to 70 years of his life," his father, Larry Brown, said today outside court. "That's not justice."
