On Wednesday, October 15, a Michigan woman who was pregnant and inebriated when she drove her car into a huge extended family, killing two of them, was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.
Ashley Monroe, 36, pled no contest in August to eight counts of driving while drunk, inflicting serious harm, and one count of second-degree murder, according to WILX.
Monroe was driving on May 18, 2024, when she collided with extended family members who were walking from their home to a neighboring park in Wacousta Township, according to the Lansing State Journal. According to ABC13, the event killed Johnathan Esch, 30, and Daniel Harris, 42, and sent 14 people, including eight children, to hospitals.
Monroe continued driving until she was stopped by Clinton County Sheriff’s Office deputies about two miles from the scene of the incident, according to the State Journal. Deputies discovered an almost empty pint bottle of alcohol in her purse, as well as two prescription bottles, according to the site.
Monroe was expecting her sixth child at the time of the crash, according to WJRT.
“This family is going to have to live with the memories of this terrible tragedy for the rest of their lives,” Circuit Judge Cori Barkman said at the sentencing hearing Wednesday, according to the State Journal.
Many of the victims and surviving family members read the victim impact statements.
“Ashley. “You made me a 28-year-old widow,” Esch’s wife Erika Glatz told WILX. “As someone who works in medicine, I understand that even excellent individuals can make terrible mistakes. I understand and empathize with people who have made mistakes. But, Ashley, this was not a mistake. You decided to drink while pregnant. You decided to drive. Perhaps most heinous of all, you opted to drive over an entire family before fleeing.”
“Make no mistake, what you did was murder,” Esch’s mother Dee stated, according to the station. “You are a murderer.”
