54° CLEAR, Teen driver admits she hit carrier
While awaiting DUI hearing, 18-year-old arrested twice
Last Modified: Friday, October 17, 2008 at 5:39 p.m.
A young Windsor woman admitted responsibility Thursday for three criminal charges in a drunken-driving crash that seriously injured a Press Democrat newspaper carrier on her delivery route.
Sarah Finney, 18, faces a maximum term of six years in prison when she is sentenced in December, according to her attorney, Bill Marioni.
She also could receive just probation or as long as a year in Sonoma County Jail.
In court for a pretrial hearing Thursday, Finney entered a no-contest plea to felony DUI with enhancements for causing great bodily injury to Edila Dimock of Forestville in a spectacular crash in August. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.14 percent, police said. The legal limit for driving is .08 percent.
She also admitted responsibility for two thefts, both of food from grocery stores in Windsor while she was out on supervised probation pending hearings in the DUI case.
She is being held in county jail on $122,000 bail.
Police said in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 3, Finney's car crashed into Dimock's stopped car, went over a curb, hit several mailboxes and a fire hydrant, then swerved back onto the road and off again, crossing a front lawn and hitting two cars parked at another house.
Neither of those cars was occupied.
Her car then bounced back toward the street and smashed head-on into a large tree, police said, before it caught fire and was destroyed.
Dimock was struck outisde of her car while she was delivering papers.
She was hospitalized for several days with multiple broken bones and other injuries.
It was unclear where the teen was driving to or from before the 5 a.m. crash.
Judge Elliot Daum set Finney's sentencing for Dec. 22.
In the meantime, Probation Department officials will investigate Finney's past and interview her before making a recommendation to Daum on an appropriate sentence.
At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors will present evidence about the crimes and her attorney will present evidence in her favor.
You can reach Staff Writer L.A. Carter at 568-5312 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat
.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Add a Comment
Only moderator-approved comments are shown on this page. To see all comments, please visit the forum. We at PressDemocrat.com created these forums as a place where our community can exchange ideas on news issues and express their thoughts. Please be courteous and respectful. Avoid expletives, false statements, veiled or overt threats and personal attacks. Stay on topic. (View full Terms of Service.)Post a comment | View all comments on this topic.