Former 'Melrose Place' Actress Speaks With Students About Deadly DUI

WAYNE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Amy Locane was a Hollywood actress, a wife, and a mother -- she's also a convicted felon who spent over two years in jail for a drunken driving crash that killed an innocent victim.

"She made me what I am today, and to have it taken from me in a blink," Fred Seeman said.

Seeman's tearful remembrance is about his wife Helene who was killed by a drunk driver in 2010.

"I drove home while I was intoxicated, and the consequences were devastating," Locane said. "Devastating to a victim, the victim's family, to me, to my family."

Locane is best known as a star from TV's Melrose Place, and for playing opposite Johnny Depp in the film "Cry Baby."

Locane was living a quiet life in New Jersey as a wife and mother at the time of the accident.

"I don't remember, I just know, I just know I made the biggest mistake," she said.

She spent two and a half years in jail. She could have served 10.

"The sentence that I got was a gift, and I am completely grateful for that," Locane said.

Seeman's son Ford spoke passionately about the sentence in court.

"The act of murdering my mother deserves a harsher sentence than unarmed robbery. Her diamond necklace wasn't stolen. Her life was," Seeman said.

He wore a dress that belonged to his mother draped around his neck.

Prosecutors filed a motion to send her back, but a judge upheld that sentence.

Locane smiled at the latest ruling. Seeman said he was furious that she said nothing to the family in court.

"I had already said that I was sorry at my first sentencing. I just don't think I have to say it again," Locane said.

What Locane is doing is speaking publicly about her crime as a warning to others. She spoke frankly to a class recently at William Paterson University.

She recalled the scene, and her experience in prison.

"I could hear women crying, sometimes you hear people crying out to god," she said.

It left her marriage fractured.

"He stood by me while I was in prison, but when I got out he filed for divorce," she said.

Students had a range of reactions.

"You have to look at things both ways and put yourself in somebody else's shoes as well," Alexia Francisco said.

For some it hit close to home.

"My mother was hit by a drunk driver and to see a person who actually killed a person because of their irresponsible drinking it's kind of like, I had to take a deep breath," Terri Holness said.

Locane said she's been sober since the accident, and grateful for every new day.

"What I would love, my second chance to help people not do what I did, not get behind the wheel of a car intoxicated," Locane said.

CBS2 reached out to the Seeman family, but they declined to speak on camera.

There is a new filing in the appellate court for another hearing to extend Locane's sentence to send her back to prison. A date has not yet been set.