OFF THE WIRE
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/sep/21/woman-who-killed-motorcyclists-sentenced-10-years-/?local Woman who killed motorcyclists sentenced to 10 years in prison
By: Joan Garrett (Contact)
A Bradley County woman who pleaded guilty to drunken driving and vehicular homicide in the deaths of two motorcyclists last year was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison and 15 years of intensive probation.
Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman heard more than five hours of highly emotional testimony from the family of the victims, police officers and family of the driver, Sarah Lamb, before making the sentence.
“It’s clear the heart of this very close family has been torn out,” Steelman said. “I think [Lamb] is sorry for what she did. I think she’s ashamed of what she did.”
According to court testimony, Lamb collided head-on into Orvil and Patricia Laymons’ motorcycle as she was on her way to turn herself in for a 45-day jail sentence she had received for one of two previous DUIs.
The 25-year-old, who cried throughout the sentencing hearing, said she had started drinking that day because she was overwrought about leaving her young twin sons, and she knew it would be her last day to have alcohol before the jail time.
Lamb had a long-standing problem with drug and alcohol abuse that began when she was 14 or 15 years old, according to court testimony. Other than going to a methadone clinic to wean herself from cocaine several years ago, she did not seek treatment over the years, testimony showed.
In her second DUI, which occurred nearly a month after her first DUI in November 2008, she drove a car into a house in Cleveland. Her blood alcohol level tested three times above the legal limit.
“I know the consequences of my sins,” she told Steelman on Monday. “I am going to put an end to that way of living. Please show mercy on me and give me a chance at life. I carry this hurt in my heart every day. I would do anything to go back and change all of this.”
Before the accident in April 2009, the Laymons, both 67, of Spring City, had spent the day driving their motorcycles with their son and daughter in-law and two close friends. The couple, both retired, spent as much time as they could on their motorcycles, taking short trips with friends and family, their children testified in court
“They were great people,” said James Laymon, their son, during court testimony. “Not only were they my parents, they were my closest friends.”
Laymon said he watched Lamb’s truck swerve into his parents and just miss the rest of the motorcycles following.
“They had nowhere to go,” he said, crying. “I see the wreck a hundred times a day, every day.”
