| By David Hedges, Publisher,
www.thetimesrecord.net
The mother and sister of a man killed in a car accident after a group of friends left a local bar testified Monday when the woman who was driving was sentenced for negligent homicide.
Before sentencing Darryal Denise Davis, 49, of Walton, Roane Circuit Judge Tom Evans also heard from her best friend.
Lois Rucker said Davis lost her husband suddenly to a heart attack in 2005. She said Davis was a good mother to her 8-year-old daughter and seldom ever set foot in a bar.
When referring to the accident that claimed the life of Jason Piatt, Rucker did not mention his name.
This led to an emotional outburst from Piatt's mother, Kathy Sviderski, who was in the courtroom.
"He has a name. It's Jason," the tearful woman shouted.
That prompted Evans to warn her she would be removed from the courtroom if she spoke out again.
Piatt was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Davis when four friends left The Rock, a nightclub in downtown Spencer, late one night in June 2007.
A short while later police said Davis lost control of her Jeep Cherokee, which left Spring Creek Road and traveled 40 feet over an embankment before landing on its top. Piatt, from Ceville, Ohio, was killed and two other passengers were injured.
Sviderski has filed a lawsuit against Davis and the nightclub.
When Sviderski, also from Ohio, did speak Monday, she said her son left behind two sons of his own, including a newborn he never had the chance to meet.
"Every day we cry," she told Evans. "She (Davis) was drinking and driving and taking drugs. I think she should get something."
Piatt's sister, Crystal Piatt, was even more direct.
"I think she needs to go to prison," the victim's sister said. "I want max time."
Evans wanted to know why Davis was allowed to plead to a charge of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of a year in jail.
A more serious felony charge of DUI causing death was reduced and two charges of DUI causing injury were dismissed in the plea.
Defense attorney Teresa Monk said the state police officer who investigated the case had "horribly mangled" the evidence.
She said two blood samples were taken, and one of those could not be used as evidence. She said both were submitted to the lab for testing, without the knowledge of which sample was which.
While the samples showed Davis was below the blood-alcohol level for a DUI conviction, she said a jury might have held her to a higher standard since she was a nurse.
Evans agreed.
"A nurse sees people mangled, battered and brought into the hospital, either as a victim of a drunk driver or a drunk driver himself," the judge said. "If no one else knows, a nurse knows."
He also noted that there were drugs in her system and the combination might have been enough to show she was impaired.
Monk said whatever punishment the court gave would be on top of what she had already suffered.
"She's living with the guilt," Monk said. "That's probably the worst punishment, and it's a life sentence."
Davis also addressed the judge before he passed sentence.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about Jason Piatt and the damage I've done," Davis said.
"I'd rather it was me instead of him, even though my daughter would have another loss," she said.
Davis said she was encouraged by friends to get a social life and agreed to go out even though she had not been to a bar in 13 years.
Davis asked Evans for probation or home confinement, so she could continue to care for her daughter.
"I pray the court will have mercy on her, because the only mercy I will get is from God," she said.
Evans rejected the pleas for leniency from the widowed mother.
"You should have been thinking about your child instead of getting behind the wheel of a car and driving that night," Evans said.
He gave Davis the maximum sentence of a year in the regional jail. She was also fined $250 and ordered to pay court costs.
"I hope everyone views this sentence as a measure of justice," Evans said. "It's not perfect, but it's a measure of justice."
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