Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Sentence Announced In Distracted Driving Case
Judge Jim T. Hamilton has determined the sentence for a local woman, charged in connection with a recent distracted driving case that resulted in the deaths of a Lawrenceburg couple.
After having originally been indicted on two counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of reckless endangerment, Misti Lynn Risner, age 37, opted in July to enter best interest guilty pleas to lesser charges. They included one count of reckless endangerment and two counts of criminally negligent homicide.
Risner was the driver in a March 17, 2013 traffic accident that claimed the lives of Clyde and Carmie Newton, ages 66 and 62.
The Newtons had been traveling eastbound near David Crockett State Park when authorities said Risner failed to stop, struck the rear of the couple’s motorcycle, then pushed them into the path of a vehicle in the westbound lane before she struck it head-on.
The Newtons died at the scene. Risner and both occupants of the other vehicle sustained injuries.
After a sentencing hearing in August Hamilton took under consideration testimony that had been presented.
Tuesday he handed down a judgment of two, two-year sentences, to run consecutively. Risner was placed on judicial diversion, similar to probation, with the possibility of having it expunged from her record in the future.
