(July 9, 2008)--Lacey Leann Kutscherousky, 18, of West, was crying before jurors announced their decision late Wednesday afternoon that she should spent two years in prison and pay a $2,500 fine after pleading guilty to intoxication manslaughter in an accident that killed her cousin.
Jurors reached the verdict around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, 30 minutes after sending out a note to the judge that said they couldn’t’ reach a verdict and six hours after they left the courtroom to begin deliberations around 10:30 a.m.
Kutscherousky was still in tears as she was immediately taken from the courtroom after she was sentenced.
She had hoped to begin her freshman year at Texas A&M University this fall after graduating ninth in her class at West High School, but college plans will have to wait because of a drunken night a little more than a year ago.
Authorities say Kutscherousky was driving a 1998 Ford pickup home from a party on March 10, 2007 when the truck left the road and overturned in a ditch, killing her cousin, 19-year-old Ashton Marek, a Texas A&M freshman who had come home for a visit.
Kutscherousky and a male passenger escaped injury Marek was crushed when the truck overturned and likely died instantly, authorities said.
Tests showed Kutscherousky had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit.
She chose to have a jury decide her punishment and the four-man eight-woman jury could have sentenced her to as much as 20 years in prison or as little as probation, which is what the defense wanted.
Prosecutors, however, asked jurors to send the defendant to prison, arguing Wednesday morning that even after the deadly accident, she has continued to go out and drink.
They said she has never shown remorse.
The defense argued her punishment should be considered in terms of rehabilitation rather than revenge and asked jurors not to make an example of the teenager.
After Kutscherousky was led away, however, Assistant McLennan County District Attorney said she hopes the case will give others pause before getting behind the wheel after drinking.
"I hope people will see what happened to Lacey Kutscherousky and what happened to Ashton and they think about it before they get in the car and drive drunk,” she said.
Kutscherousky was the last witness to take the stand Tuesday and during her testimony she, too, asked jurors for probation.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence in the case was video from a DPS trooper’s dashboard camera, which showed Kutscherousky acting belligerently toward a trooper after the accident.
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