Billy Lane set to enter plea today

BY KEYONNA SUMMERS
FLORIDA TODAY

Motorcycle builder Billy Lane is expected to enter a plea today in connection with his role in a fatal 2006 car crash.

If all goes as expected, the plea deal worked out between the prosecution and defense will end more than 2½ years of legal wrangling, which included a lengthy court battle over blood evidence that lead to a DUI manslaughter charge. He would be sentenced next month.

Police say Lane’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when he crossed a double yellow line to pass slow traffic on A1A and crashed head-on into 56-year-old Sebastian Park Inlet ranger Gerald Morelock’s motorcycle on Sept. 4, 2006.

Originally charged with DUI manslaughter in connection with the Labor Day crash, Lane’s lawyers at first fought the inclusion of testimony about blood drawn at a hospital after the crash, saying mishandling by police may have led to contamination and a skewed blood-alcohol reading.

But they said Lane, 39, became more amenable to the idea of a plea agreement after prosecutors in December filed an alternative charge of vehicular homicide. That requires the state to prove Lane was driving recklessly but does not include the drug or alcohol element needed to prove DUI manslaughter.

Both charges carry a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

It will be revealed today to which charge Lane will plead to, and whether he will plead guilty or no contest.

Attorneys earlier this year canceled his Feb. 9 trial, saying they were close to working out a plea agreement.

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