DELAWARE, Ohio - Gayle Paul buried her face in her hands and sobbed when her daughter Mary Kathryn "Katy" Paul was sentenced yesterday to 4 1/2 years in prison for killing Bob Lennon, a St. Francis DeSales teacher. Across the courtroom, Lennon's family, friends, co-workers and students slumped in their seats. The sentence, a year and a half shy of the maximum six years, pleased no one.

DELAWARE, Ohio � Gayle Paul buried her face in her hands and sobbed when her daughter Mary Kathryn �Katy� Paul was sentenced yesterday to 4 1/2 years in prison for killing Bob Lennon, a St. Francis DeSales teacher.

Across the courtroom, Lennon�s family, friends, co-workers and students slumped in their seats.

The sentence, a year and a half shy of the maximum six years, pleased no one.

�I think she�ll be let out early,� said Lennon�s sister Jeanne, who had asked for the maximum prison time. �And I think the state of Ohio just told cyclists to stay off the road because they�re not safe here.�

Paul, a diabetic with severe medical problems, pleaded guilty in December to involuntary manslaughter and fleeing the scene of an accident. She admitted hitting Lennon on Sept. 15 as he rode his bike on a rural Delaware County road.

Paul, 36, did not stop after she struck Lennon. His body was found in a soybean field along Miller-Paul Road that morning, not far from where Paul lives with her parents. Paul told investigators she didn�t know what she�d hit, because she wasn�t wearing her glasses. She has both blurred and double vision because of diabetes. One of her legs has been amputated, and she is at risk of losing the other, her attorney, Michael Hoague, said yesterday.

�Incarceration could very well be life-threatening to her,� Hoague said. �I know there are some who are not concerned with that, but this is not a capital case.�

State law allows Paul to ask a judge to let her out of prison after six months.

Lennon, 64, taught science and coached cross country at DeSales High School for more than 40 years and was an avid cyclist. Visiting Judge John W. Kessler said he received more than 100 letters from former students or others who knew Lennon advocating for the harshest prison term the law would allow.

Kessler said a pre-sentence investigation found that Paul is not likely to drive again, but he ordered her license suspended for life as part of her sentence. The judge said Paul should have stopped and should have come forward sooner about the wreck.

Kessler said he saw photos of her car and its shattered windshield, and Paul had to have known she hit something significant.

�There�s simply no mistaking that a substantial impact had occurred,� he said.

Paul initially told friends that a log had fallen off a truck and into her car, and she told her father that she thought she�d hit a deer or a mailbox.

After news reports surfaced about Lennon�s death, her father, Jerry, contacted a Delaware County deputy sheriff. The county prosecutor�s office asked that a visiting judge and special prosecutor be appointed to Paul�s case because Jerry Paul is a trustee in Delaware County�s Harlem Township.

Before yesterday�s hearing in Common Pleas Court, teenagers wearing DeSales letterman�s coats and track jackets hugged one another and cried.

Annie Kobermann, a co-captain on the DeSales cross-country team, said Lennon�s absence has left a void at the school.

�She left our coach in a ditch,� Kobermann said. �To not have him be there � it�s awful.�

Kobermann, DeSales Principal Dan Garrick and several members of Lennon�s family testified during Paul�s sentencing hearing yesterday. �He had been looking forward to a lot of things,� said Lennon�s brother John. �All of a sudden, bang! That was just taken from him.�

Sister Beth Kraft described Bob Lennon as generous with his time and money and said Paul had no excuse for not stopping and for not coming forward sooner.

�She knew she did something wrong,� Kraft said. �He was just left to die.�

Lennon�s nephew Matthew O�Kane said that Paul should never have been behind the wheel, knowing she couldn�t see. �That�s equivalent to waving a gun around a crowded room,� he said.

O�Kane said Paul sent a letter to Lennon�s family outlining her goals for her life and explaining how prison time would take those dreams away. �The only person she�s been concerned about is herself,� he said.

Jerry Paul said he hoped that the sentence would bring some peace to Lennon�s family.

�This has been a tragic chapter in the lives of two good families,� he said. �The fact is she made a mistake. She made a terrible mistake. ... We�re accepting what�s been sent down to us, and we�ll move forward as a family.�

larenschield@dispatch.com

@larenschield