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Monroe Man Gets Five Years in Tot's Death

A Monroe civic leader was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for killing a 1-year-old girl with his car in a drunken-driving crash outside a Connecticut Avenue store on July 4, 2007.

Clayton Luf, 41, broke down into tears as he apologized to the family of Kay'Anah "Kay Kay" Brayboy during the emotional sentencing in Superior Court. "There are no words that I can say that will bring little Kay Kay back," Luf told Judge James Ginocchio.

Staring at the grim faces of the girl's family in the courtroom, Luf added, "I understand their hatred of me. I have two children at home and if anybody hurt one of my children I would want them dead."

But while Assistant State's Attorney Donal Collimore had urged the judge to impose a seven-year term for the charge of second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle, Ginocchio chose to be more lenient.

Holding up a crayon drawing made by Kay'Anah, the judge mused, "This could be the beginnings of a great artist. It's just unspeakable."
But he added, "I can't make my decision based on emotion. I see a man before me that is full of remorse and he will suffer every day he wakes up in his jail cell."

Ginocchio sentenced Luf to a total term of 10 years, suspended after five years served, with five years of probation. He also ordered Luf to do 500 hours of community service and not to drive during his probation.

More than a dozen members of Kay'Anah's family attended the hearing and later filed out of Hill Street court complaining about the sentence, which they said was too lenient.

During the hearing, the girl's mother, wearing a T-shirt with her daughter's photographs on it, urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence. "It's hard to wake up when you no longer have anyone to wake up to," Tania Norris said, before dissolving into tears. She was led away by the family's lawyer, Michael Stratton.

Norris tearfully recalled the day of the crash to the judge. "I saw the baby under that car, I tried to get her, but I couldn't," she cried.
Luf's lawyer, Norris Reese, urged the judge to give his client no more than three years in prison.

A leader of Monroe's Masonic Temple, Luf worked as a volunteer firefighter up to his arrest. He owns a garage on Orange Street here.
Luf is accused of running over Kay'Anah on July 4 outside the Connecticut Food Mart on Connecticut Avenue and Hollister Street. The girl died of her injuries six days later.

Police said Luf, of Glenbrook Drive, Monroe, was driving his 2001 Mercedes convertible at an excessive speed on Connecticut Avenue and lost control, crashing through a metal fence and onto the sidewalk, running over the girl who had been standing outside the store with a cousin.

Firefighters had to lift Luf's car off the little girl. She later died of head injuries.
Police said Luf reeked of alcohol and was slurring his words as he admitted he had been drinking at Ray's Bar in Stratford.

"I know I hit that little girl, is that little girl OK I only had a few drinks," police said Luf told them. Luf, who had a cut on his head from the crash, was taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was determined to have a blood-alcohol level of .25, police said. The legal limit is .08.

Collimore told the judge that Luf was so drunk and obnoxious at the scene, police had to take him away in handcuffs. Luf pleaded guilty last month to the manslaughter charge.