Today was the 4th Annual "Second Class Citizen" luncheon and recognition ceremony in Lexington.

The luncheon is held to encourage better treatment of victims of crime.

Among the victims in the room today was Jack Blount, the father of Connie Blount.

He says April 12, 2008 is the day he'll never forget. He spoke his daughter, 18-year-old Connie Blount, numerous times.

"In the middle of the afternoon she called me to tell me she was sure her boyfriend was "the guy". She was literally having the best day of her life", Jack Blount says.

That would change late that evening at South Broadway and Maxwell Street in Lexington.

"She was run down by a driver in a truck, a hit and run driver who killed her", Blount says.

That driver was Shannon Houser who Jack Blount says time and again had his trial pushed back.

"I've had to live through it and see the way the system leans toward the criminal rather than the victim", Blount says.

It's something prosecutors want to raise awareness about, letting victims know they aren't being forgotten.

"People who work hard and play by the rules ought to be treated better than people who don't and that's the message", says Fayette County Commonwealth Attorney Ray Larson.

It's a message Jack Blount has carried out for the last year, working to change hit and run laws in several states.

"He's trying to accomplish something for the next person down the road", says Ray Larson.

Blount is encouraging other victims to do the same and take a stand.

"Realize that justice will be done in the end one way or another", says Blount.

Jack Blount says so far Kentucky and Utah have changed hit and runs from misdemeanors to felonies in Kentucky and Utah. He's now hoping Montana will do the same.

A judge sentenced Shannon Houser to five years in prison with the eligibility of parole after nine months.