Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog
A recent article on WBTV.com, discussed the tragic case of Leah Walton, a Charlotte woman who was recently sentenced to several years behind bars for a deadly distracted driving accident which took place two years ago.
A Mecklenburg County jury issued the guilty verdict to the 23-year old earlier this week, not taking much time to deliberate over the young woman’s fate. She was found guilty of a laundry list of charges, including involuntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, reckless driving, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana.
For the assault conviction she will serve between 2 years, 7 months and 4 years and for involuntary manslaughter she was sentenced to six years of supervised probation. If she fails to satisfy the terms of her probation, she will be sent to prison for 20-24 months. Beyond jail time, she was ordered to pay substantial restitution to the innocent victims; $18,000 to the woman who survived the terrible crash but is now wheelchair bound, and $12,000 to the family of the woman who was killed. Both were nurses taking a break from work and walking along a sidewalk.
Walton’s mother took to the stand to plea for mercy on her daughter. She explained that her family had suffered terribly as a result of the accident. She said that her daughter “will suffer with the knowledge of the events for the remainder of her life.”