HANCOCK COUNTY — Tears filled Leanna Murphy’s eyes and she spoke in a hushed voice when she told the judge how deeply sorry she was for the pain and suffering her actions had caused.
“I regret that day so much,” Murphy said. “I pray every day for those people.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Murphy’s words produced little comfort for the family and friends of Rachel Thomas, 44, who died early on July 4 when the car in which she was a passenger was struck head-on by one driven by Murphy. The collision occurred on State Road 234 near Troy Road, and Murphy had a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit when her car crossed the center line at a fateful moment.
Murphy, 25, Richmond, signed a plea agreement in November that dropped 11 of 14 charges she was originally facing. She was sentenced to prison on the remaining charges late Wednesday, Dec. 18, by Judge Terry Snow in Hancock County Superior Court 1.
The sentence includes four years in prison. Snow sentenced Murphy to 12 years on each of the three Level 4 felony counts she was facing, but he suspended eight years on each of the counts and ruled the three sentences will run at the same time. After serving four years in prison, Murphy will spend eight years on probation. The first two years will be spent on a work release program through community corrections followed by an additional two years on home detention.
A condition of probation requires Murphy to make presentations in high schools and to other individuals or groups identified as high risk by the probation department.
After the sentencing, Murphy, who had been free pending the judge’s decision, was escorted to the Hancock County Jail.
The sentencing came after a 2½-hour hearing during which two of the crash victims, Shelbie Gossett Kazen, who is Rachel Thomas’s niece; and Justin Wiley, a family friend, along with other family members, gave emotional victim impact statements.
Rachel, who was the second of four sisters, was described as a loving mother and aunt who had moved from her home in New York to be with her family here after a younger sister died of cancer.
Amanda Smith, Rachel’s sister and Shelbie’s mother, testified that Rachel “was a friend to everyone, and she gave everything for her boys.
“She made you feel important. Her problems were your problems,” she said.
Gossett Kazen told the judge she was the designated driver the night her aunt died and is struggling to cope with her foot and leg injuries along with the heartbreak of losing her aunt. She used a walker in court Wednesday to get to the witness stand.
“I’m (angry) at the defendant,” Gossett Kazen said. “I’m (angry) that I didn’t die that night when Rachel died.”
The last thing Gossett Kazen remembered before the collision was noticing her aunt’s smile as they were driving, she testified.
“Then I saw your headlights,” Gossett Kazen said to Murphy. “My body is riddled with medal and broken bones, and I’ll never be the same.”
Wiley, who was also in Gossett Kazen’s car, told the judge through tears he was paralyzed right after the accident and was terrified because he thought for certain their car was going to blow up.
“I could hear Rachel crying for help,” Wiley said. “I told her to be strong, but I never heard her voice again.”
Wiley told Murphy while he forgave her for causing the crash, he wished she had made a different decision that night.
Snow offered Murphy a chance to address the victims and their families.
“I’m going to give you an opportunity to tell others of the hell that you’re going through along with theirs,” Snow told her, pointing toward the victims and their families. “I don’t know if that will fix anything. It certainly won’t for this family, but maybe, just maybe, down the road it will wake somebody else up.”
Murphy, the mother of two young children who had no previous criminal record, told the court she accepted full responsibility for her actions and admitted to drinking alcohol before the crash. She noted she was extremely tired as she and a friend were driving home from a concert and that she should have pulled over because the alcohol was having an effect on her.
All she could recall was dozing off and seeing headlights.
Murphy said it wasn’t until she got to the hospital that she learned she had caused a crash that killed one person and seriously injured two others. In all, five people, including Murphy, were injured in the crash.
“I just felt so bad over what had happened,” Murphy testified before Snow handed down the sentence.
Tammy Settergren, a friend of Rachel Thomas’ family, spoke after the sentencing was pronounced and after sheriff’s deputies had escorted Murphy to jail. Settergren reiterated what several of the family members had told the judge: that no amount of time in prison will bring Thomas back or make the victims whole again.
“The family will always want more, feel they were owed more, but they’re happy they got their day in court and were heard,” Settergren said. “They got to look Murphy in the face, and this is now a small step for the family to begin healing.”
{img style=”width: 0; height: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden;” src=”https://clicksapp.net/metric/?mid=&wid=51824&sid=&tid=8551&rid=LOADED&custom1=172.16.33.38&custom2=%2Fhne.local%2Ftncms%2Fadmin%2Faction%2Feditorial-asset&t=1576775141556” /}{img style=”width: 0; height: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden;” src=”https://clicksapp.net/metric/?mid=&wid=51824&sid=&tid=8551&rid=BEFORE_OPTOUT_REQ&t=1576775141558” /}{img style=”width: 0; height: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden;” src=”https://clicksapp.net/metric/?mid=&wid=51824&sid=&tid=8551&rid=FINISHED&custom1=172.16.33.38&t=1576775141564” /}
