A Trenton, Ga. woman was given a four-year sentence following a lengthy hearing in the December 2012 hit-and-run death of a man in St. Elmo.
Betty Mundy will serve 11 months and 29 days of the sentence in the workhouse and then be under a lengthy supervised probation, Judge Barry Steelman said. She was charged in the death of 56-year-old David Joe Bruce.
She pleaded guilty earlier to vehicular homicide by recklessness and reckless aggravated assault.
She was given concurrent sentences of four years and three years. She will have 15 years of supervised release.
Prosecutor Kate Lavery had asked for consecutive prison sentences, but that was denied.
Judge Steelman said if he gave the maximum six years in prison that she would likely be released in about two years on probation. He said he could better protect the public and monitor her with the long period of supervised release.
District Attorney General Neal Pinkston said, “Under the limitations of law and considering the facts of the case, this is as strong a sentence as it gets in Tennessee. This is the latest example of Kate Lavery’s skillful prosecution, which is consistently taking impaired drivers off the streets."
Ms. Mundy, 54, was taken into custody at the close of the hearing.
Her attorney, Ben McGowan, said she had gotten in no further trouble while on bond since the incident. He said she has not driven since then.
Judge Steelman ordered that she continue to not drive.
Prosecutor Lavery said Ms. Mundy had a DUI in 1981 and another in Georgia in 2010. She said after the second DUI, she ran off the road twice before the fatal wreck in St. Elmo.
She said she had abused marijuana and had illegal drugs in her system at the time of the fatality.
The prosecutor said Ms. Mundy was speeding and focusing on food she was eating at the time of the crash. The moped went under her car and the victim's body was thrown into her windshield, breaking it.
The prosecutor said Ms. Mundy drove around the wreck scene, while almost hitting a car coming in the other direction.