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GREENSBORO — Jose De Jesus Euzondo Balderas will be about 24 when he gets out of prison.

Should he have gotten more? Less? Just right? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.

Crystal Cargua would have been 22 and likely a college graduate pursuing her dream career in psychology.

The five years that Balderas will spend in prison for her death and that of her friend Sylvester McLean is not enough, Cargua's family says.

Balderas, 19, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of felony death by motor vehicle for the Sept. 23 crash that killed Cargua and McLean. He originally faced two charges of involuntary manslaughter, which would have carried a maximum sentence of about three and a half years.

Cargua was helping McLean, who had run into car problems that Sunday morning. The two were waiting for a tow truck, sitting in a Dodge Neon on the inside shoulder of southbound Interstate 40/85 about 11 a.m. when Balderas smashed into their car, records show. The vehicles caught fire. Only Balderas escaped.

"This guy killed two people, and he got five years," Crystal's father, Manuel Cargua, said after the sentencing. Members of Cargua's and McLean's families attended the hearing Tuesday.

The laws need to be stricter, Manuel Cargua said. He plans to write President Bush, Gov. Mike Easley and anyone else he can think of and beg that the laws be made even stricter. Manuel Cargua said students at Southwest Guilford High School, where Crystal was a senior, also planned to write letters supporting stricter laws.

North Carolina recently strengthened DWI laws by adding a charge of felony injury by motor vehicle and stiffening penalties.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Parrish said Balderas was sentenced at the highest level for the charges against him. Even if the case had gone to trial, the court would not have been able to give Balderas more prison time than what he pleaded guilty to Tuesday, Parrish said.

Cargua's older sister, Stephanie, sobbed when Parrish began citing the details of that day, including that Balderas had cocaine in his system at some point and tested at .08 blood alcohol content.

Balderas sat quietly, looking forward or bowing his head while listening to a woman next to him translating everything. She left his side when the judge asked her to translate for the court as Monica Cargua, Crystal's mother, read a statement to Balderas in Spanish.

She struggled to speak through her tears as she described a beloved younger daughter who had many dreams.

"We consider him an assassin," Monica Cargua said. "He did manage to escape from the car, and he did not do anything to help my daughter."

Defense attorney John Nieman said Balderas wanted to "express his deep remorse and sorrow."

"He understands there's nothing he can do or you can do to bring these ... people back," Nieman said.

He said Balderas had not been drinking that morning, but was still experiencing the effects from the night before.

Perhaps, Nieman said, this should be a "cautionary tale for those of us who think if we sleep it off 'I'll be OK.'"

Manuel Cargua said he worries about what will happen when Balderas is released from prison. Balderas could face deportation back to Mexico where, according to Nieman, he has a wife and family.

Manuel Cargua believes that won't stop Balderas from returning under a different name.

But, he added, that's five years from now.

Right now, he plans to fight for stricter DWI sentencing laws.

"I know that won't bring my daughter back," Manuel Cargua said outside the courtroom. "But it can maybe save somebody else's life."

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jfernandez@news-record.com