A woman who killed another driver in a crash on Interstate 22 in Byhalia almost a year ago has been sentenced to a decade in prison. The crash occurred during a high-speed police chase through two counties in North Mississippi. The driver was charged with second-degree murder as well as fleeing law enforcement.
The incident occurred on Nov. 29, 2018. Police tried to pull over the woman and her companion for driving a stolen car. After passing from DeSoto County into Marshall County, with deputies from both counties behind them, they crashed into the victim’s car, causing her to suffer fatal injuries.
They then got into another vehicle and continued to flee. They eventually crashed head-on into a Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) vehicle. That ended the chase. The two women and an MHP trooper suffered minor injuries.
The victim’s relatives who were at the woman’s sentencing hearing early this month expressed very different feelings. Her father told the defendant, “I hope you receive the maximum that they could ever give you. Every November 29th for as long as I’m alive, I will come to see you in prison to remind you of what you did.”
The victim’s daughter, who embraced the defendant in court, said, “I told her that I forgive her as a person. I hope that she can forgive herself….She never meant for this to happen.”
Authorities have said that the defendant will not be eligible for early release. After she serves her 10 years, she’ll have another five years of supervised probation.
Families can feel some sense of justice when a driver who killed a loved one is penalized by the criminal justice system. However, they can also seek compensation from that driver and others who may be responsible for the crash in civil court to help cover medical and funeral costs, lost wages and other monetary losses and damages.
