COLONIAL HEIGHTS -- The death of Colonial Heights police Lt. James H. "Jamie" Sears still weighs heavily on his family nearly 19 months after he was killed in an errant Chesterfield County police chase.

Eldest son Luke, 15, "just feels empty inside" because his father can no longer take him and his two siblings to University of Virginia sporting events and baseball games in Baltimore. His father's friends have tried to fill the void, but it's just not the same, Luke said in an emotional statement read by his mother yesterday in Colonial Heights Circuit Court.

Likewise, Jessica Sears said she feels like "half of who I am is gone."

"As his wife, there is no way to describe the loss, loneliness and emptiness that have replaced my comforting, loving and secure marriage," she said in sometimes tearful testimony.

While the grief and heartbreak have been great, the family remains frustrated by what Jessica Sears described as the "totally and easily preventable" nature of the wayward chase.

"It happened as a result of lawlessness, disregard for human life and recklessness," Sears said of her husband's death. "Jamie's life meant nothing that terrible night."

The family received some measure of justice yesterday when the only man charged in the Aug. 12, 2006, pursuit was sent to prison for 20 years.

Circuit Judge Herbert C. Gill Jr. sentenced Douglas Michael Brown Jr., 37, to a total of 30 years, with 10 suspended, on convictions of involuntary manslaughter, hit-and-run driving, eluding police and being a habitual traffic offender.

In sentencing Brown, Gill exceeded state sentencing guidelines that called for a high of 14 years, nine months in prison and a low of seven years, two months.

The family is satisfied that Brown, who led police on a chase that reached speeds of 110 mph, will be behind bars for many years to come. Yet they are still haunted by the 10-mile police pursuit and actions of a Chesterfield patrolman who crashed into Sears' car while chasing Brown.

"He was truly an innocent victim of a police pursuit gone bad," Sears' mother, Kay, wrote in a letter to the judge.

Gill convicted Brown in December of involuntary manslaughter, reduced from felony-murder, ruling that Sears' death was "merely a coincidence" of the tragic chase and not a direct consequence of Brown's reckless behavior.

Sears, 38, was off duty and returning home from the gym when Chesterfield patrolman Haywood E. James III, pursuing Brown, lost control of his police cruiser and slammed head-on into Sears' car.

James was disciplined for his role in the chase, which Chesterfield's former police chief described as being in total violation of department policy. Chesterfield paid $2.35 million to Sears' widow and three children to settle a wrongful-death claim.

In recommending Brown receive just seven years, defense attorney Chris Collins said his client has a history of poor impulse control and his decision to flee is consistent with a lifetime of psychological problems.

But Commonwealth's Attorney William B. Bray said Brown's actions should be viewed in the context of a 20-year history of criminal behavior that includes 13 felony and 23 misdemeanor convictions.

"I thank a loving Heavenly Father that our children had enough years with their Dad to have many great memories of their numerous activities with him," Jessica Sears said. "Yet those same memories also serve as a slap-in-the-face reminder that memories are all that there will ever be.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.