• March 26, 2007
• Vol. 67
• No. 12

From Prison Break to Prison?

On the Hit Fox Series, Lane Garrison Played a Convict Doing Hard Time. Now He's Facing a Real-Life Vehicular Manslaughter Rap for a December Car Crash That Killed a Beverly Hills Teen

On Prison Break last year, Lane Garrison made a name for himself as Tweener, a pickpocketing convict who was gunned down after escaping from jail. Now tragedy has brought the actor back into the spotlight: On Dec. 2 in Beverly Hills, Garrison drove his Land Rover into a tree, killing passenger Vahagn Setian, 17. (A 15-year-old girl, also in the car, was injured; a second girl, also 15, was uninjured.) On March 8 Garrison, 26, was charged with three felonies, including vehicular manslaughter and DUI (police said he had more than a .15 blood-alcohol level, an amount well in excess of California's legal limit). "I pray every day for all the families involved," Garrison tells PEOPLE. "I realize I will live with a sense of guilt for the rest of my life."

According to his attorney Harland Braun, Garrison met the teens at a grocery store, attended a party with them and was giving them a lift afterward when the accident occurred. The attorney also says that the actor will "accept responsibility." If convicted, Garrison—who was booked and released after posting $100,000 bail—could face more than six years in prison. Arraignment is scheduled for April 11, but Braun says he hopes to broker an agreement before then. Setian's family is "gratified" by the charges, says their attorney Paul Kiesel. At least one famous costar is sticking by the Texas-born Garrison: Mark Wahlberg, his castmate in the new thriller Shooter. "I have a lot of friends that are incarcerated," Wahlberg told PEOPLE, "and I'm certainly about rehabilitating and trying to forgive."

• Contributors:
• Lorenzo Benet/Los Angeles,
• Jed Dreben/Los Angeles,
• Johnny Dodd/Los Angeles.