Chris Kearney sentenced to 10-12 months

A former UNC tennis star is now in jail after hitting two students while driving drunk.

Chris Kearney, who was 20 at the time of the accident, pled guilty Monday to two felony counts of causing severe injury with a motor vehicle and was sentenced to 10 to 12 months in jail and three years of probation.

Carolyn Kubitschek and Casey LeSawyer were walking to their apartment on North Columbia Street in August of last year when Kearney hit them, sending Kubitschek through tree branches until she hit a stone wall and breaking LeSawyer’s pelvis in four places. 

The sentencing might have ended the trial, but it was no cure for the way the incident has altered their lives, Kubitschek said Tuesday.

“Nobody wins,” she said. “People need to learn from the pain this situation has caused.”

Kubitschek and LeSawyer, who were about to start their senior years when the incident occurred, took a semester off to recover.

Kearney, who registered a 0.18 blood alcohol concentration after the accident, was the 2007 All-ACC Freshman of the Year.

He has lost his scholarship and left UNC, LeSawyer said.

District Attorney Jim Woodall said this case was unusual because Kubitschek wanted to see Kearney in jail, and LeSawyer did not.

“I didn’t feel like jail was the place for him,” said LeSawyer, who will have another surgery soon. “I’ve seen how this has ruined his life already.”

 Kearney met with LeSawyer in December and apologized, she said.

 “It put a face to the vehicle that hit me,” she said.

 Kubitschek said she wasn’t ready for that meeting.

 Kearney is the first person in this district to be convicted of causing severe injury with a motor vehicle — a felony charge that requires somebody was seriously injured and that the driver was intoxicated, Woodall said.

The judge focused on this felony and not Kearney’s misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, driving after consuming alcohol, underage drinking and having two fake IDs, Woodall said.

Because Kearney was charged with two counts of the felony, one for each victim, Woodall said he suggested two 11-month sentences or one sentence and then probation.

Both Kubitschek and LeSawyer took the witness stand and described the after-effects of the accident.

“It was emotional and difficult to hear about the accident from different perspectives — the cop saying he saw two bodies,” LeSawyer said.

Both victims said they want to become involved in drunk driving awareness. Kearney has been speaking at the University of California-Irvine, Kubitschek said. 

“Everybody needs to know what happens,” LeSawyer said. 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.