Man gets new prison sentence in 2008 crash that killed mother, child

A man serving nearly 40 years in prison for killing a mother and her daughter nearly a decade ago has been resentenced in the wake of a Kansas Supreme Court ruling.

Gary Hammitt, 63, was given a new sentence of 18 years in prison plus another year in the Sedgwick County Jail by District Court Judge Jeffrey Goering, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said in a statement.

Hammitt was initially serving a sentence of more than 38 years after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, aggravated battery and felony DUI.

Claudia Mijares and her 4-year-old daughter, Gisele, were killed when they were struck by Hammitt’s car as they were crossing the street in front of her school, Gardiner Elementary, on Oct. 1, 2008.

Hammitt was given a new sentence because the Supreme Court ruled last July in an unrelated case that certain crimes dating back several years should be reclassified as nonperson crimes instead of crimes against persons.

That ruling affected Hammitt’s case because he had been convicted of numerous felonies prior to the fatal crash. Some of his earlier crimes had to be reclassified as a result of the Supreme Court ruling.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Man gets new prison sentence in 2008 crash that killed mother, child."