[RACER X]

Street Racer sentenced to 6 years in jail



BEND, Ore. - A 20-year-old man was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for his role in a drag race that ended with two dead.

David Black was sentenced Monday in Deschutes County Circuit Court on his conviction for second-degree manslaughter. His co-defendant, Randy Clifford, 21, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months in jail.

On Aug. 9, 2003, prosecutors say Clifford and Black raced 16-year-old Danielle O'Neil Gates on a rural two-lane highway.

Gates lost control of her car as she rounded a corner and was T-boned by the van of then 19-year-old Katie Reznick, who was seriously injured in the accident. Gates and Stephanie Beeksma, 15, a passenger in Gates' car, were killed in the accident.

Clifford negotiated a plea settlement with prosecutors, pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide and fourth-degree assault. David Black said he wouldn't negotiate a settlement because he didn't feel responsible for what happened.

Julie Rehanek, Beeksma's mother, said she was still trying to come to grips with the fatal accident.

"I buried my daughter in a wedding dress because I knew I wouldn't ever see her married," Rehanek said. "There was something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue."

Reznick, who lives in Sisters, said prison sentences for Black and Clifford were appropriate, if it sent a message to others about speed racing.

"I bet you anything they (Beeksma and Gates' parents) would love to see their kids in prison and not dead," she said. "If that's what it takes for all of these kids in Oregon to realize it's wrong, then that's what it takes."

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.