WACO (June 9, 2009)--Lacey Leann Kutscherousky, 19, of West, has been released from prison after serving eight months of the two-year sentence she received after she pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in alcohol-related accident that claimed the life of her cousin.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Tuesday Kutscherousky was released from prison on May 29 and is now on parole.

She began serving her sentence on Sept. 22, 2008.

Jurors decided on the two-year sentence and a $2,500 fine on July 9, 2008.

Authorities said 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, but 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 that even after the deadly accident, she continued to go out and drink and never showed remorse.

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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