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IDAHO FALLS — A 30-year-old woman was given prison time after she pleaded guilty to causing a crash that killed her 7-year-old child.
Jessica Martinez was sentenced by District Judge Bruce Pickett to a minimum of one and a half years and a maximum of 10 years in prison. She will also be required to pay at least $1,500 in court fees and fines.
Martinez initially pleaded not guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter and three counts of felony injury to a child but accepted a plea agreement in April, where she agreed to plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter in exchange for the prosecution dropping the remaining charges and recommending a maximum of 10 years in prison at sentencing.
Sentencing
Martinez's defense attorney, Jason Gustaves, argued for a five-year probationary period with an underlying sentence of a minimum of one and a half years and a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Gustaves said Martinez had been drinking at home before getting into an argument with her boyfriend. The argument upset her four children, so she took them for a drive to calm them down.
"She typically took the kids for a drive when they would be upset, and it would calm them down. The littler ones often would fall asleep," said Gustaves. "This time, though, she had had alcohol to drink. … She reached back to adjust one of the children and lost control of the car and rolled the car."
After 7-year-old dies and mom arrested, court documents give more details of crash
Court documents reveal what happened leading up to a deadly crash where a mother was charged and her 7-year-old daughter died.According to court documents, the crash occurred on Nov. 15 at 11 p.m. in the area of 2080 East 65th South, just east of Sandy Downs.
Gustaves admitted his client made poor decisions by not calling law enforcement and instead calling her boyfriend to take three of the children to the hospital.
"She was significantly injured as well, she hit her head. She didn't make the right decisions immediately after," said Gustaves. "And then she called (the children's biological father) to tell him, 'I think (the victim) is dead.'… So she was lying there with her child. She had a broken back and ribs and a punctured lung. She was intoxicated, she hit her head. So she was in trauma as well."
According to Gustaves, Martinez and her siblings were born to parents with alcohol abuse issues, potentially leading to Martinez's own addiction problems.
"Alcohol has been a problem for her the majority of her life. In this case, there was the blood alcohol level of 0.075, which means she drank more than she thought she did," said Gustaves. "She and her two sisters were all three born to parents that abused alcohol and drugs. She and her two sisters were all diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome at birth and then were removed from the parents and were adopted into a larger family where there were 10 kids that grew up. And she grew up with a fairly stable family from there."
Bonneville County Prosecutor Randy Neal argued for a minimum of three years in prison and a maximum of 10, stating that Martinez freely made the decision to drink and drive with her children in the car.
"She should have been the one that kept this child out of harm. The decisions that went into what resulted in the death of this young girl, this innocent girl, one who had no control over the circumstances or over the result," said Neal. "There should have been someone there to protect her. And there wasn't."
Neal insinuated that Martinez failed to call law enforcement because she did not want to be caught drinking and driving, resulting in the death of her daughter.
"Her child lay dead or dying near her, and she failed to call emergency services. Was that because she was concerned about the fact that she had been drinking and driving? I don't know," said Neal. "But I do know that several injured people went without care because they chose to try to handle this within their family rather than call the authorities."
Martinez gave a statement to the court apologizing for her actions and saying she is trying to keep her daughter's memory alive.
"Without my children, I am not who I'm supposed to be. And now I have lost one forever. And I will never forgive myself for that. I will never forgive myself for putting my other children through this tragic loss," said Martinez. "I talk to them often about their sister, and we do things to help keep her memory alive because she is our angel now, and I just, I love my children. I realize how bad I messed up. And I'm going to have to live with this for the rest of my life. My children are going to have to live with this. And I just want to be there to help them cope, help them heal."
Before pronouncing the sentence, Pickett explained his ruling, stating that although there is nothing that can bring the child back, he feels an obligation to deter society and prove that the child's life had value.
"These are difficult cases. There are no good answers. I can send you to 15 years, the maximum in prison. It's not going to do anything to bring your 7-year-old daughter back," said Pickett. "I could have you not do a day in jail. And by doing so, indicate that your child's life has very little value."
Pickett read over the facts of the case, including that a half-empty bottle of Crown Royal alcohol was found next to the driver's door after the crash, and that Martinez admitted to being under the influence of alcohol, marijuana and hydrocodone.
"There are a number of mistakes made. Certainly, the alcohol and consuming alcohol was a huge mistake. Not placing your child in a safety restraint at 7 years old is an additional mistake," said Pickett. "Not calling immediately for an ambulance, but rather calling for the children's father was an additional mistake. Because I don't know what would have happened."
