Knauss sentenced to 25 years

PALMER -- An impassive John Knauss listened on Monday as Superior Court Judge Mike Wolverton sentenced him to 25 years for his role in the fiery November 2001 collision that cost the life of a little boy and seriously injured his mother and sister. Wolverton also revoked for life Knauss's eligibility to apply for a driver's license.

Knauss, 43, who was himself critically injured in the crash, had previously agreed to the 25-year sentence in exchange for a plea of no contest to one charge of second-degree murder and one consolidated charge of first-degree assault in the case.

Knauss reportedly was a fugitive from justice at the time of the accident, having walked away from a halfway house in Anchorage in July 2001 where he was completing a sentence for a 1999 drunken driving offense that left another man with skull fractures and permanent injuries to his back and spine.

Wolverton handed down an additional two years and 177 days of jail time on the previous case, giving Knauss a total sentence of 27 years and 177 days.

According to Assistant District Attorney Bill Estelle, when and if Knauss gets out on parole, he is facing 10 years of supervised probation, during which an additional 10 years of prison time hangs over his head if he violates the conditions of probation.

Linda Mack, her daughter Jeanette Seybert, her husband Floyd Mack, Sr. and her brother Danny Seybert all addressed the court prior to Wolverton's ruling, as family and friends of the Mack family listened, many of them in tears.

They recounted how an ordinary day of family activities ended in tragedy on Nov. 27, 2001, on a Parks Highway overpass when Knauss's truck crossed the center line and hit Mack's truck head on, causing it to burst into flames.

They told a wrenching story of the months of physical and emotional anguish of a family trying to come to grips with the horror that had struck their lives.

The family had gone out to dinner with a family friend, taking two vehicles in order to accommodate the group.

Mack was on her way home with her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette Seybert, and 4-year-old son, Floyd Mack, Jr. in the truck with her when the accident occurred.

Bystanders pulled Mack and Seybert from the burning truck, but did not know a child remained in the flames. Her husband and a friend were driving a separate car, so that Floyd Mack, Sr., found out about the tragedy to his young family by way of a telephone call.

Linda Mack spent more than two months in a Seattle hospital enduring multiple surgeries as doctors repaired broken bones and grafted skin over the burns that covered much of her body. She spoke quietly of the constant pain, the wounds that have not healed, and the additional surgeries she faces.

Jeanette Seybert, also severely burned and injured, remembered details of the accident that her mother could not. She described in a halting, poignant narrative her last conversations with her little brother.

"As for the sentence," she concluded, looking at Knauss, "27 years is not long enough. You can't repay a life."

Floyd Mack, Sr., spoke affectingly of his little boy, nicknamed "Mister," who he said was the "biggest and best thing that ever happened to me."

Mack handed Knauss a copy of Floyd, Jr.'s, funeral service with a photo of the happy child on its cover. Knauss studied it somberly before folding it and placing it in the breast pocket of his blue prison uniform.

"How do I speak on his behalf," asked Mack. "What would he say?"

Mack acknowledged that Knauss had struggled for his own life following the crash. He then faced Knauss and asked that he help someone else by talking sense into them and preventing another tragedy.

"Give someone else a chance at life," he said.

Linda Mack's brother, Danny Seybert, spoke of the nephew that he said was the "glue that held our family together."

"We have laws for a good reason," said Seybert. "We are a responsible family, but Mr. Knauss has proven that he can't abide by our society of rules and laws."

Seybert closed by asking Wolverton to sentence Knauss to the maximum possible prison time.

In citing aggravating factors, Estelle pointed out that Knauss had a record of multiple felonies, adding that only the lucky presence of bystanders who pulled Linda Mack and Jeanette Seybert from the burning wreckage had saved Knauss from facing three charges of murder in this case.

Estelle said the Mack family had been "robbed of its future" and the namesake of the Floyd Mack line. He added that they had also been robbed of their sense of safety, security and control over their lives, citing the diagnosis of post traumatic stress syndrome as something that the family would be able to overcome only with years of work.

"Nothing can bring back your son or your health," said Defense Attorney Darrel Gardner, adding that he hoped the process would offer the family some sense of closure. Before his final ruling, Wolverton gave Knauss an opportunity to address the court and the family. Knauss turned to face the family, stating although he felt he had no right to say anything, he was sorry for their loss.

"If I could trade places with 'Mister,' I would do it right now," he closed.

"There is nothing to be gained by summarizing the eloquence expressed by the victims," said Wolverton before he issued his ruling.

Wolverton added that he was struck by the remarkable strength of the family, and of Floyd Mack's compassion toward Knauss.

"By expressing the compassion you have here," he said, "you have honored his [Floyd Mack Jr.'s] memory."