Posted on 10/01/2004 4:48:37 AM PDT by martin_fierro
Driver gets maximum penalty
Woman who killed couple gets 20 years
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
James F. McCarty, Plain Dealer Reporter
Defiant until the end, Robbie Moore was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for getting drunk, driving the wrong way, and killing a newlywed couple on a motorcycle in May.
Moore, 29, of Warrensville Heights, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated vehicular homicide in the deaths of Jeffrey Bliss, 25, and his wife, Ann Marie, 20, of Parma, on Cleveland's Inner Belt May 20.
The couple had been married nine days.
Moore maintained the deaths were an accident. She insisted she had downed only 2½ alcoholic drinks at a bowling alley that night, and that causing harm to an other person is against her nature.
-- snip --
She had a blood-alcohol level of 0.2 percent, about twice the legal limit in Ohio.
Sutula didn't believe Moore's story and gave her the maximum punishment that state guidelines allow.
The judge chastised the defendant for a lack of remorse and for living so recklessly with a checkered driving record although Moore had no prior felony convictions.
Sutula defied the 5-foot, 285-pound woman to explain how she became so intoxicated on fewer than three drinks, or why she drove the wrong way for nearly 10 miles on interstates 71 and 90.
"Let no one walk out of here believing this was an accident," Sutula said. "This is the worst form of drunk-driving and vehicular homicide."
The judge said Moore required the maximum sentence "to protect the public."
Moore's attorney, James Hardiman, protested the judge's severity, citing similar cases of aggravated vehicular homicide where the sentences were a fraction of that imposed by Sutula.
"You may take that up on appeal," the judge responded.
--- snip ---
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
Not true. This woman never once apologized for what she did. She showed absolutely no remorse at any point for what she did.
That's the reason she got the max.
IMHO, this woman at 285 lbs had to consume a minimum of a 12 pack or equivalent to get to a BAC of .20
Apparently, the judge knows not only the Widmark formula, but BS too.
good behavior... by a criminal; I will ponder that over my 2nd cup of coffee.
That's not a height measurement it's a diameter.
Read the link to the other incident. The fellow was no doubt guilty but in court he expressed his remorse sincerely.
The woman in the above case claimed she was innocent.
Her weight and appearance might have had an impact. If she showed up snarly, nasty, unreprentant, and fat to boot in front of me, I would've given her a harsher sentence, also.
LOL. It would also take a lot more than three drinks to ease her pain if she happened to see herself in a mirror on the way into the bar.
In the real world, appearance counts. It shows respect even amid the slovenliness of today's America, it matters. Why do you think Scott Peterson wears a suit each day to court? Why did Elian Gonzalez' father -- who probably didn't own a suit in Cuba -- wear one every day, in the humid Florida climate, when he was trying to reclaim his son?
Because appearance does matter. It shows sincerity, respect, propriety, etc. In the above situation, I was (perhaps unfairly) ascribing to the woman in question that, because she was unrepentant, her appearance matched her attitude.
My children are not allowed to get on a plane wearing jeans or flip-flops. They wear traditional clothing (not T-shirts) to church each Sunday. In their closet each year they have dress shoes, not just lots of sneakers. And my wife and I dress the same. We know they will be better off having learned the value of appearance.
Perhaps she meant to say 3 Fifths?
RamS
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