NC woman sentenced to 3 days a year in jail for 3 straight years after fatal crash
JACKSON COUNTY, N.C. – A North Carolina woman who crashed while driving impaired and killed a close friend will spend three days a year in jail for three consecutive years, a judge ruled Monday.
Jackson County Superior Court Judge Athena Brooks ordered the sentence for Mary Harper, 41, WLOS reported.
Shannon Marsden died at the Nov. 4, 2017, crash scene in Sylva, the Smoky Mountain News reported. At the request of Marsden’s parents, Harper’s sentence would coincide most closely with the anniversary of the woman’s death.
“They are a family of compassion, not vengeance,” Assistant District Attorney Christina Matheson told the court. “They did not want Mary sentenced as a felon with active time in prison.”
Harper must also undergo substance-abuse treatment and service the community by speaking with groups about the consequences of driving while impaired, the newspaper reported.
District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch, with North Carolina’s 43rd Prosecutorial District, said Harper had entered two Alford pleas to driving while impaired and misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, the television station reported.
An Alford plea occurs when a defendant does not admit guilt but enters a plea of guilty, the Smoky Mountain News reported.
In a news release, Welch said Marsden and Harper left the No Name Bar, where they worked, after 2 a.m. in Harper’s Subaru Impreza. Both women had been drinking during their shift, the Smoky Mountain News reported. About a half-mile from the bar, the car rounded a curve, went off the road and became airborne, crashing into a power pole, WLOS reported.
Harper’s car, which flipped at least once, was broken into two pieces, the television station reported. Neither woman was wearing a seat belt.
First responders found both women entangled on the ground about 50 feet from the Subaru, which was totaled, the Smoky Mountain News reported.
Harper suffered severe injuries in the wreck. At the hospital, a blood sample revealed the presence of amphetamines and cocaine, in addition to alcohol, the newspaper reported.
