Melrose Place Actress Amy Locane Resentenced to 8 Years in Prison for Fatal DWI Crash

Amy Locane previously served nearly two and a half years of a three-year prison sentence on charges of vehicular homicide and assault

Published on September 17, 2020 05:53 PM

Amy Locane is heading back behind bars despite having already served a prison sentence for her involvement in a fatal DWI car crash in New Jersey.

The Melrose Place alum, 48, was resentenced to eight years in prison by Superior Court Judge Angela Borkowski on Thursday after a former ruling stated that her previous prison sentence was too lenient, Associated Press reported.

The state law requires her to serve more than six years before she is eligible for parole.

Locane went to prison in February 2013, serving nearly two and a half years of a three-year sentence on charges of vehicular homicide and assault that killed 60-year-old Helene Seeman and seriously injured her husband, Fred Seeman.

During Thursday's proceedings, the actress apologized to the victims' family in a brief statement, though Mr. Seeman told the judge that Locane’s shifting of blame "shows contempt for this court and the jury that rendered the verdict."

"You made a conscious decision to drink that day and continued to drink, recognizing at the onset that you needed a ride, but didn’t obtain one," the judge told Locane during the proceeding. "If you hadn’t gotten behind the wheel of your vehicle on this night, the incident never would have happened."

Locane's attorney James Wronko tells PEOPLE that he is "shocked" by the new sentence and "embarrassed to be part of a system that can do this."

"She has been out of prison for five years. She did everything they asked, and went above and beyond," Wronko says of Locane, adding that his client has spent years following her prison release coaching others about the dangers of alcohol abuse. "She's apologized at every sentencing proceeding."

Locane currently has 45 days to appeal her sentence. Wronko says a petition for the New Jersey Supreme Court to hear his appeal based on double jeopardy principles is pending.

This was Locane's fourth sentencing in nearly a decade. In 2019, Superior Court Judge Kevin Shanahan sentenced Locane to five years in prison after her first two convictions from another judge were overturned for being too short under minimum sentencing guidelines. However, Shanahan's ruling was rejected by an appeals court in July.

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In 2017, when Superior Court Judge Robert B. Reed refused to change his previous sentence despite an appeals court’s concerns that it was too lenient, Locane said she was "absolutely terrified" of the thought of receiving more prison time.

"I had worked so hard since 2010 on my sobriety, on adjusting to life in prison, on being released from prison, on acclimating to my children’s lives, and to parole that having to go back would seriously interrupt, if not destroy, any progress I had made in becoming human again,” she told NJ Advance Media in an interview.

At the time, Locane said that she wanted to focus on being a mom rather than returning to her acting career.

“First of all, I want to stay sober,” she said. “I want to help people not make the same mistake I made. I want to warn the youth about the dangers of drinking and driving. Everybody thinks it’s not going to happen to them, including myself.”