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DUI Mom Will Go To Prison For 9 Years For Killing Son

By Eddie Farah

A 32-yer-old Jacksonville woman will be spending close to nine years in prison for driving drunk and killing her son in the crash that followed.

Last April, Angela Harper was was drunk driving at 100 mph on Interstate-295, south of Jacksonville. Harper lost control of her Saturn and hit a metal guardrail on Interstate 295 in Jacksonville.

Her 13-year-old son, Jesse Harper, was one of several teens in the back seat thrown out. He died at the scene. While Angela was wearing her seat belt, the kids in the back were not.

Law enforcement found that Angela's blood alcohol level was measured at .11, and she was speeding. She pled guilty to DUI manslaughter.

In other words she was doing everything wrong that she possibly could.

But the mother of two other teens involved in the crash, believes the sentence is too harsh.
“Something inside of me said I have to forgive her. I have to forgive her because she lost her son,” the unidentified woman said to Channel 4.

“We felt it was significant and important enough to go ahead and prosecute this case aggressively to try to let people know that we treat this just as seriously as if she had killed a complete stranger,” said Assistant State Attorney Mark Borello.

Sentencing guidelines can send her to prison for 15 years for DUI Manslaughter in the state of Florida, so nine years could be considered a break. But isn't losing your son enough of a lesson to learn that driving drunk and without seatbelts is a fatal combination? This is a tragedy all the way around.

Posted in Auto Accident, Personal Injury | Edit |

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on October 03, 2008 (boomark / email).