Grieving family demands justice

      Family members of the late James Addison and Rodrick McClure will be looking for justice today, when District Judge Michael Douglas sentences Michael Allen Thompson on a single felony count of drunken driving.
      Thompson faces between two and 20 years in prison, and if Hester Addison had it her way, he would spend all 20 years behind bars for killing her husband and son a day after Christmas in 1996.
      The accident led to the deaths of 58-year-old James Addison and the 21-year-old McClure. Thompson, originally charged with two counts of reckless driving and two counts of drunken driving, entered into a plea bargain last October.
      Nevada Highway Patrol officers said Thompson had a blood-alcohol content of 0.15, .05 more than Nevada's blood-alcohol limit, and was driving between 85 and 100 mph when he ran a red light at Paradise Road and Tropicana Avenue. Thompson's vehicle smashed into Addison's Cadillac, which slid about 90 feet into a light pole, according to officers.
      "Had this boy (Thompson) just pleaded guilty and went on and done his time and stand up for what he did, then I could have been a little bit better," Hester Addison said. "It would have still hurt, but at least I know he stood up like a man. But he's taking the easy way out and I will not accept that for no reason. I don't care what he said, I will not accept that. And as hard as it is, I will fight it."
      Addison's family wants Thompson to stand up for his actions.
      "We want justice done, we want him to pay for what he's done," said Deshay Addison, James Addison's daughter. "All we want is for this man to stand up to what he's done and pay for his crime."
      Added her sister, Renee Redmond: "When it first happened I didn't have any anger ... it was an accident. But now, I look at what's gone on and the things that were said ... it really upsets me."
      Robert Murdock, Addison's attorney, filed a civil lawsuit against Thompson two weeks ago on her behalf.
      Addison, along with friends and family members, penned nearly 75 letters asking the judge to take the two deaths into consideration, not Thompson's plea bargain.
      "I didn't know I was gonna have to fight the judicial system," Addison said. "He wants me to understand why he did what he did, what am I getting in return? I have to go to the cemetery."
      Addison, who said she has been shut down mentally for the last 12 1/2 months, added the only thing keeping her motivated is her anger.
      "There is nothing that boy can say to me right now," she said. "I don't have no hate for him, I'm just angry."
      Addison said she felt the "most inconsiderate thing ... was when (Thompson's) lawyer asked the judge" to postpone the sentencing until after the holidays so he could spend it with his family.
      "Nobody asked me: 'Did I want to spend the holidays with my family?' I didn't have that choice," she said. "If anybody, he should have asked me could he spend the holidays with his family, and I wish I could've been the judge of that.
      "And then he wanted to get him off of house arrest, how much more can he do to me? He killed my husband, he killed my son."
      According to his attorney, William Terry, Thompson has been under house arrest for about 11 months, since he posted a $50,000 property bond.
      "It's like a slap in the face," Deshay Addison said. "We're having a hard time dealing with this. All this crap about letting him spend time with his family on the holidays, we'll never get to spend our holidays with our dad."
      Both Deshay Addison and Redmond, who are twin sisters, said each month around the 26th they get a little cranky and have a hard time dealing with their loss. They called their father "the peacekeeper of the family," and said they have been lost without him for more than a year now.
      "I can frankly say now that I don't know what I'll do," Redmond said. "I miss my dad like no one could ever believe. He was so much a part of my life and now nothing."
      McClure, a member of Cimarron-Memorial High's 1994 boys state basketball championship team, played two years at Central Arizona Junior College before transferring to Eastern Washington. McClure had started all nine of Eastern Washington's games in 1996 and was averaging 7.7 points, 5.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game.
      "He had the most beautiful smile," said Hank Girardi, Cimarron-Memorial's basketball coach. "No matter the kind of day I was having, he was always able to make me stay on task.
      "He would always tell me, whenever he could tell I was going to get mad, everything was going to be OK. And it would be. He had that special effect on me and not many people have that. God I miss him."
      The one thing remaining for Hester and Deshay Addison, Redmond, Girardi and many others who will be on hand, is today's sentencing by Douglas.
      "I know they're dead ... but they will not die in vain," Hester Addison said. "They won't."