A San Pablo resident, 36-year-old Erik Steverson, pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter for causing a wrong-way collision near the Interstate 80 and Interstate 580 eastbound interchange on Sept. 6, 2021. The collision killed 60-year-old Sean O'Brien of Emeryville. Steverson, reportedly driving drunk, fled the scene despite injuries and hid on a bike path before police located him. At his Oct. 6 sentencing hearing Steverson apologized and said he prayed for forgiveness. Two of O'Brien's family members remembered him as a nurse who cared for elderly parents and as a compassionate Buddhist. Judge Rozlynn Silvaggio imposed a six-year prison sentence.
"I am sorry. Words can't even express how sorry I am. Day in and day out, I pray for God for forgiveness, Erik Steverson said at his Oct. 6 sentencing hearing. Not only did I pray to God for forgiveness, I prayed to the family to forgive me. Steverson, 36, pleaded no contest last September to a vehicular manslaughter charge for killing Sean O'Brien, an Emeryville resident, in Sept. 6, 2021."
"Two of O'Brien's family members spoke at the hearing, remembering him as a nurse who was assisting his elderly parents at the time of his death. O'Brien worked a late shift and was headed home when he was killed, they said. Anybody that needed help, they would go to him and he was always there for them. He was a Buddhist and he believed in peaceful, you know, changes, and always worked hard during his whole lifetime, O'Brien's uncle, Stephen O'Brien, said at the hearing."
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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