A young pregnant woman was badly injured and her fetus was killed when an 18 year old girl decided to smoke pot, do some pain pills, and then go joy riding.
All the girl can be charged with is assult. Oh and for bonus points, the defenses argument is "well she(the pregnant woman) was wearing a head scarf and dark clothing, our cliant just couldnt SEE her" um, I'm sure the drugs had nothing to do with it.
rolleyes This should be vehicular manslauter at least and at most felony murder(I'm not sure what driving under the influence of illegal substances is considered)-if she had killed both the woman and the fetus it certainly would be. But because she only the fetus was killed, all that can be done is charge her with assult.
I couldnt get the article to link, so I'll just post the whole thing.
A young Bensalem woman, who admitted smoking marijuana before her car hit a pregnant woman and killed her fetus, pleaded no contest to aggravated assault yesterday.
"From the bottom of my heart, I am truly, deeply sorry for everything that happened," Lauren Elliott, 18, said after leaving a Bucks County courtroom.
About the plea, Elliott said, "It won't bring the baby back."
A senior at Bensalem High School who wants to be a nurse, Elliott was driving 26 m.p.h. on the 1800 block of Brookwood Drive in Bensalem about 8:45 p.m. on Sept. 25 when she hit the pregnant pedestrian.
Fadwa Awad, 22, had walked with a plate of food from her home to her family's van, which was parked with the passenger's side against the curb. Her father and husband testified that she walked into the street, passing the front of the van and going around to the driver's-side window to talk to her husband. Their two children were in the backseat.
She had intended to hand the plate to her husband through the window before walking around to the passenger's side, her father, Jamal Awad, testified Wednesday. The family was bringing the food to Fadwa Awad's brother, who lived nearby.
Jamal Awad, who was standing on the sidewalk at the time of the crash, said his daughter stood at the car window talking to her husband for 10 to 15 seconds before she was struck.
"I saw my daughter fly," he said. "I ran to her... . I tried to wake her up."
Fadwa Awad spent five months in hospitals and a rehabilitation center and is not yet able to walk, said Deputy District Attorney Anthony C. Cappuccio. Her fetus died shortly after the accident.
The death of the fetus prompted District Attorney Diane E. Gibbons in October to call on state legislators to expand the vehicular homicide law to include fetuses. Gibbons was unable to charge Elliott with homicide under the law.
Elliott, of the 4400 block of Roselyn Lane, told police that she smoked marijuana before and while driving that night and that she smoked it daily. She also had taken a painkiller. She pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs and recklessly endangering another person.
She decided to plead no contest to the aggravated assault charge and guilty to the others during a lunch break in a jury trial that started Wednesday. In accepting the pleas, Judge David W. Heckler said, "This needs to be a point of departure in your life."
He allowed Elliott to remain free on $750,000 bail. A sentencing date has not yet been set. The felony aggravated assault charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Under state law, Elliott will keep her driver's license until she is sentenced.
Elliott's attorney, William Goldman Jr., said she was receiving treatment for drug abuse. He had argued that the victim, who was wearing a head scarf and mostly dark clothing, walked in front of Elliott's car.
"This was a horrible accident," he said.
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