[humanbot]

Weeks after a Nobel Prize-winning physicist was convicted of killing a man and injuring seven others when his speeding Mercedes-Benz slammed into their van, former colleagues are still trying to understand what happened to the restrained professor they admired.

Florida State University Professor John Robert Schrieffer, 74, formerly of the University of California, Santa Barbara, pleaded no contest July 25 to felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for crashing into the Toyota van near Orcutt on Sept. 24.

Schrieffer had nine prior speeding tickets and was driving on a suspended license at the time of the crash. He also admitted to a criminal enhancement of causing great bodily injury to three people in the van.

Yet colleagues described him as a cautious person.

"This is not the Bob I worked with," said Brown University Professor Leon Cooper, who, with Schrieffer and John Bardeen, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1972. "This is not the Bob that I knew."

"Those of us who know him recognize that this is not some extreme personality who happens to be a brilliant scientist," said Dan Hone, deputy director of UC, Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. "He's a wonderful, charming person."

Schrieffer was driving at more than 100 mph in his new sports car when he struck the van during a trip from San Francisco to visit Santa Barbara, where he worked as a professor from 1980 to 1991.

His lawyer, Roger Lytel of Santa Barbara, said his client had fallen asleep at the wheel.

Under a plea bargain, Schrieffer was supposed to be sentenced to eight months in county jail.

But Superior Court Judge Jim Herman, after hearing the teary pleas of several relatives of the crash victims, said Monday he thought Schrieffer might deserve a greater punishment.

"I think you need a taste of state prison," Herman said. "The tragedy of this case is that you're a bright man who has made great contributions to society ... It's a puzzle why you decided to drive high-performance cars at great speeds on public highways."

Herman sent Schrieffer to Wasco State Prison for examination by an expert who will determine whether state prison or county jail is appropriate. Schrieffer will return to Herman's court Nov. 7 for sentencing.

"It's really a puzzle as far as I'm concerned," said William Moulton, a Florida colleague. "Everyone really loves Bob Schrieffer."