Defense expert says deadly crash was unavoidable(Judge Pat Shelton Daughter)

Houston Chronicle -NYTimes of the South ^ | Oct. 6, 2007, 12:07AM | PEGGY O'HARE

[ru4liberty]

Guilty!

[potlatch]

Yes, thank you. Someone else wrote that too.

[TexasCajun]

10/09/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - Elizabeth Shelton, the daughter of Harris County Judge Pat Shelton, will serve eight years probation and 120 days in jail in the drunken driving wreck that killed her boyfriend. Elizabeth was found guilty of intoxication manslaughter.

It only took the jury less than an hour to reach a verdict. >P? Shelton's father was comforting his daughter just before the jury came. She began to sob just before they handed down the guilty verdict.

"The jury obviously did the right thing in assuring this young woman go home with her mom and dad and get back in school," said Shelton's attorney Mac Seacrest.

The Judge ordered her to start her jail sentence five days before Christmas.

Shelton was accused of driving drunk. Her blood alcohol content was reportedly more than three times the legal limit. Investigators say she also had trace amounts of marijuana in her system though it wasn't enough to contribute to her intoxication the night of the accident.

Shelton's boyfriend, Matthew McNiece, 19, was killed as the result of a freeway crash that involved Shelton and the driver of a box truck, Lance Bennett. Attorneys for Shelton argued last year's crash was caused by Bennett.

Prosecutors said today's verdict contained a message.

"It says if you drink and drive, people are going to hold you accountable, that they have had enough of it," said district attorney Craig Feazel.

Shelton had faced anywhere from two years probation to up to 20 years in prison.