80-year-old man gets 3 years for homicide

An 80-year-old man sentenced to three years in prison for killing one pedestrian and injuring two others while driving drunk likely won’t make it to his release date, his daughter said.

“I suspect he’ll come out feet first, not on his feet,” said Kiel A. Ganoung’s daughter, Yvonne McCullough.

Ganoung pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault last month.

He was sentenced Tuesday in Spokane County Superior Court.

Ganoung was driving north on Wall Street with a .21 percent blood alcohol level Oct. 15 when he hit and killed John L. Lisenbee, 73, and seriously injured Lisenbee’s wife and another unidentified woman. A fourth pedestrian jumped out of the way.

McCullough considers the prison term a life sentence because her father is a diabetic, has had two open heart surgeries and “he’s 80.”

Ganoung’s lawyer, John O. Cooney, filed a motion April 1 for a less-than-mandatory sentence.

He cited Ganoung’s clean criminal record and remorse about the incident as reasons why the lifelong Washington resident and former military man shouldn’t be sentenced to the 51 to 68 months he was facing.

Clint Francis, a Spokane County deputy prosecutor, said the Lisenbee family never forgave Ganoung and that may have been a factor in the judge’s decision on the sentence.

Another man who pleaded guilty to killing someone while driving drunk was sentenced about three weeks ago.

Paul Estrada, 51, was given 12 months in a work-release program, Francis said. The last month of the sentence is community service.

Francis said the victim’s family in that case was on record as forgiving Estrada in the death of their loved one.

It’s unknown where Ganoung will spend his prison sentence.