Kimball Faces Sentencing Today

Former Olympic diver Bruce Kimball faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced today in Tampa, Fla., for drunken driving-manslaughter in the Aug. 1 death of two teen-agers.

Kimball, 25, will be sentenced by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Harry Lee Coe, before whom he pleaded guilty Jan. 11, the day after a jury was seated to hear his trial.

State sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 7 to 22 years on the charges.

Kimball was free on bond before his trial but after pleading guilty was jailed without bond to await sentencing. He has been kept in a one-person call and checked every 15 minutes because his attorneys that they were concerned about his “self-destructive behavior.”

Investigators said Kimball, who won a silver medal in platform diving in the 1984 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, was driving his sports car at 70 to 90 m.p.h. when it slammed into a group of teen-agers.

Kimball admitted he had been drinking earlier in the day and prosecutors said a blood-alcohol test administered that night recorded .20, twice the legal limit.