Tommy Sullivan sentenced in court

The father of the teen killed by an Horry County Veterinarian in a 2007 hit and run was sentenced in court on Tuesday in Conway.

Authorities charged Thomas Francis Sullivan with trying to kill Rachel Easterly in October 2007.

Sullivan faced three counts of assault and battery with intent to kill, burglary, discharging firearms into a dwelling, failure to stop for a blue light, and malicious damage.

Sullivan drove to Easterly’s Surfside Beach home with a rifle, shot her car, and then broke into her home where police said he fired shots at Easterly and her boyfriend.

None of the bullets hit either of the two.

He will not face any prison time, although he is now on probation.

The court sentenced Sullivan to 10 years in prison for each of the three counts of assault and battery, all of that time suspended, and five years probation.

Sullivan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for each count of burglary, suspended, with five years probation, 10 years for each firearms charge, suspended with five years probation, 3 years for the failure to stop charge, suspended, and 10 years for each charge of malicious damage to property, suspended and five years probation.

Investigators said Sullivan and Easterly’s boyfriend got into a fight inside the home, Sullivan ran out as Surfside Beach police were responding to the home.

Sullivan fired shots at an officer, then got into his car and ran from police.

Surfside Beach police caught Sullivan a few miles away after he crashed his car into a ditch.

Easterly was sentenced to four years in prison after a Horry County jury convicted her of a deadly hit and run, which killed Sullivan’s 16 year old son, Tommy in 2007.

Easterly killed the teen as he walked down Highway 17 near Garden City, then spent the next several days working to cover the crime up and to throw investigators off her trail.

Sullivan did face life in prison for the charges.

In Judge Larry Hyman Jr.’s courtroom, the soft-spoken man stood in front of his wife Teresa, who sat with her head down and tears in her eyes during most of the trial.

And also in courtroom 3D of the Government and Justice Center, dozens of Sullivan's family and friends, as well as some of the victims of his crimes. Many of them fought back tears as the details of Sullivan's crimes were read, including how he fired at least 25 gunshots. One of his victims spoke about how she now sleeps with a loaded gun next to her bed, the only way she feels safe.

But mixed in with the details of what Hyman said was a terrible thing, pleas for leniency for Sullivan.

Easterly was not in the courtroom, but her sister read a letter on her behalf, asking Hyman to put to rest all of this madness and to send Sullivan home to his family.

Frances Sullivan, cried as she told the judge about the day her son was born and pleaded with him not to put her husband in jail.

Teresa Sullivan showed pictures of their family and asked the judge to please not take away another part of her family.

And when it was Thomas Sullivan's turn, he told the judge he was truly sorry for what he did.

Hyman said he was left in a quandary about what to do, in the end, he said Sullivan's incarceration won't serve any purpose and he was allowed to go home and be with his family.

Scott Joye, Sullivan’s attorney said, "It's been a tough, tough thing for the Sullivan family, personally as a lawyer, it’s been a tough case for me, I think the judge truly got it right."

Sullivan said he will get the next part of his life right, starting with trying to heal himself and his family from a death that just about everyone in the courtroom agreed, changed so many lives.