A former corrections officer who fell asleep at the wheel in 2019, causing a car crash that killed a 9-year-old girl, will not serve any prison time.
Kenneth Morang, 65, was found guilty of manslaughter in October in the death of Raelynn Bell of Standish. In an emotional ruling Monday, Cumberland County Superior Justice Thomas McKeon decided that Morang will serve a 6-year suspended sentence plus four years of probation. He was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service. While on probation he cannot drive a car and he cannot contact the Bell family.
He was driving home after working two consecutive 16-hour shifts at the Cumberland County jail in July 2019 when he rear-ended the Bell family SUV, with Raelynn in the back seat. She was airlifted to the hospital and died days later from traumatic brain injuries.
He faced up to 30 years in prison. Morang has been waiting for sentencing on personal recognizance.
York County prosecutors, which handled the case because Morang was a Cumberland County employee, asked McKeon to consider an 8-year sentence, with all but 18 months of that sentence suspended, plus four years of supervision and 100 hours of community service.
Morang’s defense attorney Amy Fairfield advocated for no prison time, asking the judge to consider a 5-year suspended sentence, with two years of supervision and 100 hours of community service.
In her filing with the court, Fairfield referenced four other cases involving vehicular deaths. All of the drivers were either speeding or under the influence of alcohol, neither of which Morang was believed to have been doing in 2017.