AUBURN - A grieving mother said she has to forgive her ex-husband for a drunk driving accident that killed her 4-year-old daughter last summer.

"As mad as we are about the situation, we have to forgive," Stacey Lamphere said in Cayuga County Court Tuesday. "Jerry will spend a lifetime facing himself for what has happened and knowing that our precious baby is gone. We pray and trust that God will put his hand on the sentencing for Jerry, for he's already been sentenced for a lifetime already."

Brooke Lamphere was not in a child seat when she died in a one-car crash on Potter Road in Throop July 21, 2006. Brooke was partially ejected through the rear window and suffered fatal trauma to her body.

Another older child passenger who was in the back seat of Lamphere's Dodge with Brooke was not seriously injured when the car entered a ditch on the west side of Potter Road, flipped over and came to rest on its wheels.

Jerry Lamphere was sentenced to an agreed-upon five to 10 years in state prison for the felony of second-degree manslaughter and the misdemeanors of endangering the welfare of a child and driving while intoxicated .

Read the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Citizen.