Man guilty in fatal hit-and-run can't drive for 6 years

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - An 84-year-old northeastern Indiana man who pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal crash was given a six-year suspended sentence Monday and will not have a driver's license during that period.

Howard Lininger of New Haven was sentenced under an agreement with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to failure to stop after an accident resulting in injury or death.

The Nov. 18 crash killed Haley Nancarrow, 25, of Fort Wayne.

Nancarrow's mother, Jennifer Dawkins, spoke at the sentencing.

"I think the best sentence is for this man to never get behind the wheel again," she said.

A judge asked if Lininger wanted to make a statement, but Lininger just replied, "No, sir."

"I would've liked an apology," Dawkins said afterward. "I guess I won't get that."

An unopened whiskey bottle found in Lininger's vehicle was the key piece of evidence in the investigation, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police found Nancarrow's palm prints on the whiskey bottle.

Deputy Prosecutor Adam Mildred credited the success of this case to two witnesses who saw Lininger get out of his vehicle and pick up the whiskey bottle.

"Without their type of assistance, cases like this often times don't get solved," Mildred said.

Lininger's attorney, Mark Paul Smith, has said Lininger thought someone threw a whiskey bottle at his car, shattering the windshield. Smith has said Lininger found the bottle lying in the street but didn't see the woman's body further back along the roadside.

Police say Nancarrow had been carrying the bottle. They say Lininger was arrested after he reported the car damage to his grandson, a police officer.