"There were some amazing moments of forgiveness, something I've never seen in my 20 years of practicing law."
That's the way Arturo Corso, lawyer for Samuel Mark Phillips, 33, of Flowery Branch, described the scene in a Hall County courtroom Wednesday, where Phillips listened to messages of forgiveness from the family of Hall-Dawson Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Supervisor Cory Buckley, who was killed when Phillips crashed his car into her's on Browns Bridge Road in 2015.
Phillips pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle and failure to maintain lane; he will serve seven years in prison.
Corso said in a phone interview that Buckley's son took to the podium.
"He's a great, big, powerful bear of a man ... and asked the judge for permission to address Samuel, my client, directly," said Corso.
"Normally that's not allowed, but we said it was okay with us, and the judge said that would be okay. He turned to Samuel with tears in his eyes, and — just trying to catch his breath — he told Samuel that he forgives him. That he had totally come to terms with it, and overcome a lot of sadness and anger."
Corso said his client, and just about everyone in the court room, was moved to tears.
Phillips' sentencing took approximately four hours.
Corso said his client has gotten sober during his time on bond, beating alcoholism for the first time since he was 10 years old.
"In fact there was testimony in the court room (Wednesday) about a young man whose life was saved by Sam, just spending some time with him walking home from work with him, and helping him not take a drink that day," said Corso.
Buckley was 60 years old at the time of the wreck, and served with CASA for 20 years.
"As sad as Samuel is about taking Cory's life that awful day in that accident, he's committed his life to helping others the way Cory did," said Corso.
Phillips told Buckley's family members during courtroom testimony that he planned to take up her mantle, and continue her legacy of helping others.
AccessWDUN's Derreck Booth contributed to this report.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/1/494916/lawyer-something-ive-never-seen-as-victims-family-offers-forgiveness-in-fatal-wreck-sentencing