NORMAN — A prosecutor vowed Friday to seek a lengthy prison sentence for the "career criminal" who drove his pickup into a group of student runners with such force that one victim came to rest in a nearby pond.

The pickup driver, Max Leroy Townsend, was charged Friday with manslaughter in the deaths of two students outside Moore High School. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

"There is one place for repeat offenders like this and that's behind a prison wall," Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said after filing the charge. "And we're going to do our best to put him there."

Townsend, 57, of Tuttle, is accused of driving drunk when his red Ford pickup struck seven student athletes on a sidewalk Monday afternoon.