Driver Gets 4 Years in Bike Deaths : Crime: Hit-and-run drunk driver who killed a Carlsbad father and daughter riding a tandem bicycle showed a ‘callousness’ that deserved harsh punishment, the judge said.

Calling it a “tragedy for all concerned,” a San Diego Superior Court judge Thursday imposed a four-year prison term on a hit-and-run drunk driver whose car struck and killed a Carlsbad father and daughter riding a tandem bicycle.

Judge Charles R. Hayes sentenced William J. Meiss, 51, of San Marcos, to the four-year term in state prison, rejecting both prosecutors’ request for the maximum sentence, 56 months, and a defense plea for leniency that called for jail but relied primarily on a lengthy probation term.

Meiss had pleaded guilty two months ago to two counts of felony vehicular manslaughter in the July 30 deaths of Brandi Flaming, 17, who had just moved to California from Iowa, and her father, Jerry Flaming, 48. They were hit from behind on their tandem bicycle while riding on Carlsbad Boulevard.

Meiss expressed no emotion as Hayes delivered the sentence in a courtroom crowded with Brandi and Jerry Flaming’s relatives, bicyclists sporting bright yellow cycling garb and local television crews. When the hearing ended, Meiss was led away in handcuffs, bound initially for the state prison in Chino.

In a short speech given shortly before Hayes announced the sentence, Meiss did not ask directly for leniency. Instead, he said he was “truly sorry” for the accident and told of an anonymous phone call he received the day after his car hit Brandi and Jerry Flaming.

“The guy says, ‘I hope you spend an eternity in hell,’ ” Meiss said. “He’s got his wish. I spend every day in hell.”

Hayes, who received about 90 letters from the little towns in Iowa and Minnesota where Brandi Flaming grew up, urging him to punish Meiss, said that Meiss had to go to prison because he tried to flee after his car struck the bike, showing a “callousness” that deserved harsh punishment. A witness chased Meiss down and talked him into returning to the scene.

Hayes also said the decision to impose a prison term was complicated because Meiss, a factory assembly foreman, has a wife, children, no criminal history and a steady work record. But, Hayes said, the fact that Meiss drove away after the accident, instead of stopping to help, was in itself enough to compel a prison term.

In legal papers filed before the sentencing hearing, Meiss’ lawyer, Rick Mills, said Meiss “does not remember the accident itself and cannot explain why the impact occurred or why he left the scene.”

Hayes ordered the four-year terms to run concurrently on both manslaughter counts. He also directed Meiss to pay $38,627 in restitution to Brandi and Jerry Flaming’s families.

Mills had proposed that Hayes sentence Meiss to a year in County Jail and 10 years’ probation, and order him to pay half his income for a year to a nonprofit organization involved in fighting alcohol abuse.

The four-year sentence brought “relief and closure, both,” to Jane Flaming, 43, of Carlsbad, who had been married to Jerry Flaming for about four years--and who twice has been widowed. About seven years ago, her previous husband and their two children were killed in a plane crash near San Marcos.

She and Jerry Flaming did not have any children.

Judy Ford, 47, of Jefferson, Iowa, Brandi Flaming’s mother, said after the sentencing hearing that she was unsure “whether it’s really over with.”

“I’m sentenced to life,” Ford said. “He gets four years.”

Jerry and Brandi Flaming, who were both wearing helmets, were hit from behind and tossed 20 feet into the air as they rode north on Carlsbad Boulevard north of Poinsettia Lane about 7 p.m. July 30, witnesses said.

Brandi Flaming, who had moved to Carlsbad to spend her senior year in high school with her father, died at the scene from skull fractures and brain wounds, family members said. Jerry Flaming, who suffered massive head injuries, died eight days later at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

A witness, Curtis Brown, a Leucadia auto mechanic, told police that he confronted the suspected hit-and-run driver at three separate stops, ordering him to return to the scene. The third time, Brown was obeyed.

Blood tests showed, more than two hours after the accident, that Meiss’ blood alcohol level was .13%. The legal limit in California is .08%.

Originally, Meiss was charged with the two counts of felony vehicular manslaughter, two counts of felony drunken driving and one count of felony hit-and-run, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to the two manslaughter counts in November, averting a trial.