19-year old driver who texted and killed a child gets 5 days in jail and 115 days home detention

[alp227]

SF Chronicle: "Sonoma driver sentenced in texting death":

Kaitlyn Dunaway, 19, who pleaded no contest in September to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, could have faced up to a year in jail for the Dec. 1, 2010, crash that killed Calli Murray and injured her mother, Ling Murray.

But Judge Bradford DeMeo of Sonoma County Superior Court ordered Dunaway to surrender Dec. 27 to begin serving a five-day jail sentence. She must spend an additional 115 days in home detention while under electronic monitoring, he said.

She is free to leave her home for work, school and to perform 200 hours of community service by speaking to groups about the dangers of texting while driving. Calli's father, Jeff Murray, who had hoped for a longer jail sentence, and grandfather, Al Andres, will be notified about the speaking engagements so that they can appear with her to provide their perspective, prosecutors said.

Another interesting tidbit: "A police investigation determined that Dunaway was not at fault in the crash, but prosecutors said they had filed charges against her because they believed she played a role in Calli's death."

Also, . Well, I doubt that any police department will want to hire someone with this on her criminal record. But hey, if Ted Kennedy could serve in Congress despite a criminal conviction involving vehicular death and Darrell Issa could too despite his criminal record, then she may become a political crook too.

[wtmusic]

1. WTF? She wasn't at fault, but she was convicted anyway.

:crazy:

[elleng]

4. Really ???

prosecutors 'believed she played a role,' and she pleaded 'no contest.'

[pnwmom]

8. Did she plead no contest to the death? Or to illegally using her phone while driving?

There's a difference.

[elleng]

10. 'no contest in September to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter'

which apparently was the charge, even tho 'A police investigation determined that Dunaway was not at fault in the crash.'

[pnwmom]

11. Reading the article again, it appears that the police drew the conclusion

that she hadn't caused the death, but the prosecutor drew a different conclusion.

[elleng]

15. Right.

'they (prosecutors) believed she played a role in Calli's death." Splitting legal hairs, as we do.

[Lionessa]

7. Actually that does make sense. It is pretty common I think that

situations that end in careless deaths have more than one cause. I don't know the details here, but my ex-hub had a situation similar, no death though. He was driving down a narrow city road, cars parked along the side, in the rain, and a college student who had been sitting in a car with no lights on (ie my ex didn't like see the car being parked and have some clue that someone might...) and he opened the door and stepped right into the path of my ex's car. My ex was going 10 miles over, so he was partially at fault, but clearly so was the student and it was determined that though my ex had some clear fault, the 10mph over wouldn't have made a difference. The student didn't die, had some broken parts, nothing serious. Had it been a small child darting out from between cars, it would likely have been a death or very serious injury.

just sayin'.

[elleng]

2. Ted Kennedy 'criminal conviction'

'On July 25, seven days after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury.'

[slackmaster]

3. I hope they confiscated her phone

:argh:

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[AmericaIsGreat]

6. So she was texting and driving

But the actual cause was the kid and mother improperly crossing the road or something?

[Rowdyboy]

9. What a nasty ass cheap shot at Ted Kennedy.....

Would have been more appropriate on a rightwing board.

[pnwmom]

12. I noticed that, too.

:shrug:

[elleng]

13. Agree

[alp227]

20. Its a FACT not a cheap shot

Did you not notice Darrell Issa?? And Kennedy=great politician, poor social skills

[quinnox]

14. the Ted Kennedy "joke" makes you sound like a freeper n/t

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[alp227]

19. Which FACT did I get wrong

about Ted Kennedy leaving the woman behind at the accident? theres a rwason I mentioned Issa too.

[quinnox]

21. your facts aren't in question

As the people above posted, its usually rabid right wingers who have an extreme hatred for Ted Kennedy. Its not hard to understand.

[saras]

16. It sounds like she's too upper-class to do anything to...

"District Attorney Jill Ravitch said Dunaway was texting, driving at a speed that was unsafe for the conditions and failed to yield to Calli and her mother - all illegal acts that do not amount to felonies."

If a poor black driver killed a white pedestrian while doing all three of these things, there would damn well be felony charges.

So, if you are of the desirable class, you can drive too fast and kill someone in a crosswalk, and you'll basically get off.

Frankly how she could have NOT played a role baffles me, unless she was in the PASSENGER seat texting.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. well, it's not like she was caught growing pot for cancer patients, or something

I'm sure that would have warranted a 5 or 10 year prison sentence, because that's a REAL CRIME!

[no_hypocrisy]

22. "Grounded"?! That's "punishment" in a court of law?

What else, did they take away her cell phone as well?

:sarcasm: