Man who killed best friend apologizes

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) - Pierce Abrams will have to live the rest of his life knowing he drove drunk and killed his best friend. And for at least the next year, he'll be living behind bars.

Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas on Friday gave Abrams the minimum sentence allowed by state law for vehicular manslaughter, one to three years in prison.

Overcome with grief, the 22-year-old apologized to both his own and Kyle Atkins' families for driving drunk and causing the accident that killed Atkins last summer. Authorities say Abrams was speeding on Mount Hope Road on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation when he crossed into the oncoming lane, continued into a ditch, hitting a culvert and going airborne, before hitting a tree and overturning several times.

Abrams at times struggled to speak, biting back or wiping away tears.

"Kyle was my best friend," Abrams said. "I want you to know that I'm not going to touch another drop of alcohol again. Because if I even thought of it, I couldn't. I would just be reminded... of everything terrible that happened. Everything that I can't take back."

Atkins' mother Darelyn Clause told the court, she has already forgiven Abrams, whom she says she loves like one of her sons.

"My two boys and the two Abrams boys... if they weren't at my house, they were at their house. It was nothing for them to come in and open up the refrigerator and see if there was something to eat," Clause said. "My family are as close to them as I am."

Abrams' daughter was born on what would have been Kyle Atkins' birthday this past January...something both families take as a sign.

"It makes her that much more special to me, because she's such a close reminder of Kyle," Abram said.

Clause added, "There's miracles, and there's blessings. And this is a path that he's going on, but he'll get through it."