Oscar-winning screenwriter gets jail sentence

Roger Avary, an Oscar-winning screenwriter who worked on such films as "Pulp Fiction" and "Beowolf," was sentenced to a year in jail for a car crash that killed a passenger in Ojai, CA in mid-January of 2008.

The LA Times reported that in August, Avary pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He crashed a Mercedes sedan into a telephone pole at over 100 mph. The accident seriously injured Avary's wife Gretchen and killed Andreas Zini, 34, who was on his honeymoon with his wife (they were both from Italy). Fortunately, Zini's wife Maria was in another car.

His sentence also included five years of probation and a DUI education program, according to E! Online. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Edward Bordie said he did not give the writer a more severe sentence because he had no criminal background and had showed remorse in court.