Indiana woman gets 7 years for hit-and-run that killed 2

[TowZone]

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — A northwestern Indiana woman has been sentenced to seven years in prison for a hit-and-run crash that killed two people who had met a tow truck driver along a road before sunrise on a foggy morning.

 

Yariel Butler, 20 was also sentenced Thursday to one year of probation. A jury had convicted the Lafayette woman in February of two counts of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and one count of leaving an accident resulting in injury.

 

The August 2018 crash killed Kimberly McDole and Eric Peacock and injured tow truck driver Robert Carley.

 

Tippecanoe County prosecutors said that hours before the crash, McDole had driven her car through a highway intersection and into a cornfield, the Journal and Courier reported.

 

She got a ride home but later called Peacock, who gave her a ride back to the scene, where they met Carley and his tow truck along U.S. 52.

 

Prosecutors said Carley, McDole and Peacock were standing at the back end of the tow truck when Butler struck the three of them.

 

Butler’s attorney, Lakeisha Chantay Murdaugh, said that it was foggy at the time of crash and Butler believed she had not hit anyone as she was driving home after a 12-hour shift at NHK, an automotive seating factory in Frankfort.

 

Murdaugh said Butler swerved off the road, hit something, and drove back onto the road.

 

Fred Peacock, Eric Peacock’s father, read a letter to the court, where he referred to his son as a “gentle giant.”

 

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