A Six Year Murder Sentence!

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Apr 4, 1:02 PM EDT

Calif woman gets 6 years for fatal texting crash

REDDING, Calif. (AP) – A woman who crashed into a line of stopped vehicles while text-messaging on her cell phone has been sentenced to six years in a California prison for killing a woman in one of the vehicles.

Deborah Matis-Engle was sentenced Friday by a judge in Redding, Calif.

Investigators said Deborah Matis-Engle was speeding and text messaging when she slammed into the vehicles stopped at a construction zone in August 2007.

Shasta County prosecutor Stephanie Bridgett said the 49-year-old woman had paid several bills by cell phone in the moments before the crash.

She was in the middle of one of those transactions when she struck a vehicle that burst into flames, killing 46-year-old Petra Winn.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Stotter said he will appeal.

— Information from: Record Searchlight, http://redding.com/

? 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Won’t stick.

Very interesting situation.

What type of sentence did that train engineer get who crashed head-on into another train some montns ago? The record shows texting was also involved.

The issue is distracted driving whether it be from texting,using the phone by voice,or falling asleep. Falling asleep while driving and causing a accident probably happens more but society doesn’t get so angry about that, not yet anyway. Perhaps it is because speeding and falling asleep while driving don’t really happen at the same time. I would like to know the degree of the speeding as I think this is what sealed her fate.

When I first heard the story Whitey posts I was sure the offender would be a young person.

As a parent of a teen driver, makes one nervous about what might happen if your teen was found guilty of this, parents would be held liable too, I imagine.

I am more worried about the innocent victims than the murderer who thinks talking and texting are more important than the lives of innocents. In my opinion, a six year sentence is an insult to the family of the dead victim. It is less than a slap on the wrist.

I agree. 6 years is nothing for this crime. Leave the eff-ing phone alone when you are driving and this will not be a problem.

Severe punishments are needed to stop foolish things like this. This appears to be involuntary manslaughter in California. It’s supposed to be punished by at least 2 years in prison. The court found this to be a particularly foolish act.

I agree that 6 year is nothing, especially since she can be paroled in 3 years.
They should treat this as any other vehicular homicide case as the woman was nearly 50 years old and should have known better

Bridgett said that only months after the crash, Matis-Engle had been spotted twice by a California Highway Patrol officer texting on her cell phone while driving.

apparently, she doesn’t know any better, but ignorance of the law is not an excuse
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/apr/04/shingletown-woman-sent-to-prison-for-text/

California what a place. I remember the state awarding 1.5 mil to an undocumented alien too drunk to drive, makes his wife, no license also an undocumented alien who does not know how to drive go pick up the kids. She drives into a pond and because there was no guardrail preventing her from driving into the pond they got 1.5 mil. If only I were stupid enough.

It’s hard to believe she didn’t know better. Even after she killed this woman, she continued to text message while driving.

“Bridgett said that only months after the crash, Matis-Engle had been spotted twice by a California Highway Patrol officer texting on her cell phone while driving.” (http://www.redding.com/news/2009/apr/04/shingletown-woman-sent-to-prison-for-text/)

She knew better and continued doing it anyway. I hope they don’t give her a driver’s license when she gets out. I hope the victim’s family takes her to civil court, takes every penny she owns, and garnishes her wages when she gets out of jail.

It may be too little (6 years) but it’s a start. Take notice you drivers who treat your car like your living room and think the windshield is a video game.

Also…a friendly reminder from previous post discussion, that as a one time cop, all of the research we were exposed to said the same thing. The biggest determent to criminal activity WAS NOT the severity of the punishment. The biggest determent is the chance you will get caught…if the chances were perceived to be the same, than punishment severity was a factor. That’s why anyone that uses a cell phone must be held accountable at anytime, even “before” an accident occurs. Otherwise, you affect most the person whose now in jail…though that’s a start.

Taking it to the extreme…if you knew there was a 100% chance you would pay a $25 fine everytime you text while driving vs a life sentence for manslaughter in an accident you were the “text” cause. Which would have the greater overall affect on instances of illegal texting while driving in society ?
I would argue for both…better enforcement before AND harsher penalties after.

If she does get it back, could the DMV be held liable in the next accident she causes?

To whoever thinks the punishment was too harsh: Why do you think a six year sentence is too harsh for someone who took someone else’s life? I am curious.

I don’t think it was harsh enough.
I’m sure a greasy lawyer could word everything so that it could be made out to seem like premeditated murder.

I don’t think it’s too harsh. She killed someone out of simple callousness.

I think her driving privaleges should be revolked for life also.

Well somebody said with a vote that he or she thought the punishment was too harsh. I know the voting is anonymous, but I was hoping that person might be willing to explain. I guess all the current sentiment can be intimidating. A lot of us are willing to lock her up for a long time.

On some level I kind of feel like it was premeditated. Like mountainbike says, “callousness” really describes it better.

Just this week I looked in my rear view mirror to see a woman cell phone in one hand cigarette in the other hand. I was glad when I turned and she did not.

This woman, if she indeed continues to text whilst driving, has stated her priorities loud and clear: she believes her life, her business, her bills, are more important than the lives of those she drives alongside.

Folks, it is well documented that texting and talking on your cell phone severely compromises your ability to drive.
Here’s a study:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/bmj.38537.397512.55v1

She had a knee to drive with!

Its not severe enough, you can get more time robbing a 7-11 store. If you are going to kill someone its best to do it behind the wheel of a car. If she was drunk when she did it she probably would have only got 1-2 years in the slammer.
Its time people take responsibility for thier actions and start taking driving serious. 4000 people were killed on 9-11, and that was tragic, but 20,000 people a year are killed by drunk drivers, but thats rarely talked about on the news.