It’s a scary time for parents when their teenagers drive. Boys often want to drive too fast. Speed isn’t as alluring to girls but in this case it’s impossible to know why the young woman (17 at the time) drove head-on into a brick wall at 100mph.
Also, in her car at the time of the crash was her 20-year-old boyfriend and his 19-year-old friend. They didn’t survive the crash. According to family members of the deceased, the driver wanted to kill her boyfriend. On the side of the driver, they said it was a terrible accident.
The prosecution presented evidence that showed the driver sped up to 100mph and never removed her foot from the accelerator—black box data determined. In fact, her slipper clad foot was still on the accelerator when the emergency response crew extracted her from the vehicle.
Social media can make you or break you. It didn’t help in her case that she’d bragged on social media about being a girl who can do a lot of drugs and not die. She had marijuana in her system at the time of the crash. It also didn’t help that she shared photos of herself in attendance at a concert—in a wheelchair—shortly after being released from the hospital. It added to the claim she had no remorse about the accident or the two people who died.
She pleaded not guilty and went to trial. The jury found her guilty of murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, drug possession (psilocybin mushrooms), and possessing criminal tools (digital scale).
A prosecutor associated with this case said,
“No sentence imposed will enable these families to heal from this senseless act.”
The judge sentenced the 19-year-old to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
The judge associated with the case said,
“Her actions were controlled, methodical, deliberate, intentional and purposeful. This was not reckless driving. It was murder.”
Source: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, Strongsville Police Department, USA Today, New York Post, Law & Crime