Kerrigan’s brother gets 2.5 years for dad assault

WOBURN, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts judge sentenced the brother of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan to the maximum two and a half years in jail today after he was convicted of assault in the death of their 70-year-old father.

Six months of the sentence for Mark Kerrigan will be suspended, and he will be required to get anger management and alcohol treatment, and serve two years of probation.

Nancy Kerrigan broke down and cried earlier as she asked Judge S. Jane Haggerty to send Mark Kerrigan home instead of sending him to jail.

Mark Kerrigan was convicted of assault, but acquitted of manslaughter, Wednesday in his father’s 2010 death.

Prosecutors alleged that Mark Kerrigan caused his father’s death during a physical altercation at the family’s home in Stoneham, just north of Boston. They said Mark Kerrigan put his hands around Daniel Kerrigan’s neck with such force that he broke cartilage in his father’s larynx and triggered his heart failure.

The defense argued that Daniel Kerrigan died because he had severely blocked coronary arteries and that Mark Kerrigan was not responsible.