Opinion
ID#: 0001017369
Submitted: December 19, 2001
Decided: March 8, 2002
Upon Defendant's Motion to Reduce Sentence — DENIED.
ORDER
By a timely motion filed by counsel, Defendant asks the court to reduce the eight month prison sentence imposed for two counts of Criminally Negligent Homicide. The State is opposed to Defendant's motion. The State's position is blunt: "[G]iven the short period of incarceration for the death[s] of two people, the Court's sentence was appropriate and it should not be reduced."
This case has been a tragedy from the start. Defendant was a long-haul truck driver. For reasons that remain unclear, but which do not involve substance abuse or excessive speed, Defendant plowed her tractor trailer, at highway speed, into an SUV that was stopped at a brightly lit traffic light. The horrific crash killed two of the SUV's occupants in a terrible way.
At sentencing, the court undertook the difficult process of balancing the fact that Defendant was not drinking or speeding against the fact that she was a professional driver behind the wheel of a "semi" and the consequences of her criminal negligent driving. As mentioned above, the court imposed a prison sentence totaling eight months, followed by probation.
On reflection, the court remains troubled by this case. And that is how it is likely to remain. Nevertheless, the court sees no principled basis for reducing the sentence. The court understands that Ms. Kester will be eligible for release in less than a month from now.
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant's November 7, 2001 Motion for Reduction of Sentence is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.