Kanyi Williams told a judge Thursday that he was sorry he took a son from his parents and that he lost a friend when he drove drunk last spring, smashing his vehicle into a power pole.
“There is nothing I can do to bring him back,” Williams said of DeShawn Lloyd Perry Jr., who died from injuries in the crash. “I think about it everyday.”
Williams offered his apology inside a Ramsey County District Courtroom while his family listened on. Shortly after, Ramsey County District Judge Timothy Mulrooney sentenced the 22-year-old St. Paul man to 48 months in prison on one count of criminal vehicular homicide.
Mulrooney commented on the sincerity Williams has shown since the car he was driving on March 30 with four passengers crashed in to a Green Line light rail power pole in St. Paul.
All of the passengers were hurt in the accident. DeShawn Lloyd Perry Jr. died from his injuries days later on his 21st birthday.
Officers arrested Williams at the scene after finding him walking nearby as his passengers remained trapped in the vehicle. He was slurring and smelled of alcohol.
Williams eventually admitted that he consumed “several glasses” of alcohol before driving, and said his actions caused him “to fail his friends and that he deserve(d) whatever punishment he receive(d),” according to legal documents.
He pleaded guilty in July to charges facing him in the case.
“I appreciate your genuine honesty and remorse,” Mulrooney told Williams Thursday.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Ayodele Jessica Famodu told Mulrooney that Perry’s mother had indicated her intent to read a statement about the impact of her son’s death at William’s sentencing but that she ended up not showing up.
The other victims in the case declined to attend for various reasons, she said, adding that all had expressed that the crash had taken a “severe” toll on all of them.
Williams was traveling eastbound on University Avenue on March 30 when he went into the left turn lane to try and pass another vehicle.
As he overcorrected, he wound up striking a power pole on the Green Line tracks.
Perry died from his injuries in the crash two days later.
His family remembered him shortly after his death as an “energetic” and “likeable” kid who was a talented basketball player and artist with a love for music and dancing.
He attended St. Paul’s Central High School between 2012 and 2014, before moving to Iowa and attending school there.
Williams said at his hearing Thursday that he hopes to spread his story to prevent others from making the same mistake he did.
Before Thursday, he had no felonies on his record.