'Melrose Place' Actress Gets 3 Years for Deadly D.U.I. Crash

Amy Locane-Bovenizer, who appeared on the first season of Fox's Melrose Place and acted opposite Johnny Depp in the 1990 John Waters movie Cry-Baby, has been sentenced to three years for a 2010 drunken-driving accident that took the life of another woman.

The sentence, far lighter than the 10-year maximum sought by prosecutors, was received with outrage from the family of 60-year-old victim Helene Seeman. "What a travesty!" shouted husband Fred Seeman, according to the Associated Press. Son Ford Seeman said, "This is not justice," then stormed out of the courtroom.

Locane-Bovenizer, 41, had retired from acting and was a stay-at-home mother living in Somerville, N.J., at the time of the accident. Her blood-alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit when in 2010 she plowed into a Mercury Milan driven by Fred Seeman as he was pulling into the family driveway. His wife was killed, and he was seriously injured.

The judge explained that one of Locane-Bovenizer's young children, a daughter, has a serious medical and mental disability, a mitigating factor in her lenient sentence.

"I made a terrible choice to get behind the wheel. I put the general public, Helene, you and myself at risk," Locane-Bovenizer read from a written statement lasting almost four minutes. "Please know that the reality that I did cause you such loss haunts me every day and will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Locane-Bovenizer will serve 31 months before she is eligible for parole, according to the Daily Record, followed by three years of post-release supervision and a driver's license suspension of five years. She also might be eligible for a halfway house in six months, they note.