Man Gets 4-1/2 Years In Deaths Of Children

Sun., Jan. 10, 1999

From Staff

A Seattle man who struck and killed two 6-year-old children while he was driving drunk has been sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison.

John McKnight, 67, was sentenced Friday in King County Superior Court in the May 21, 1997, deaths of Shakeem Satterwhite and Jimmy Goldsmith Jr.

McKnight, a retired carpenter, was convicted of two counts of vehicular homicide.

The children were hit as they were crossing busy Martin Luther King Jr. Way South in an unmarked crosswalk.

Shakeem’s younger brother, Joshua Satterwhite, also was hit but suffered only minor injuries.

Toxicology tests showed McKnight had a blood-alcohol reading of .17 percent, far above the .10 legal limit at the time. The legal limit dropped to .08 percent on Jan. 1.

McKnight’s attorney had conceded McKnight drank alcohol at a reception after his sister-in-law’s funeral, but argued no driver could have avoided the children.

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