Who is Grace Coleman? Drunk driver gets 21 years as she sobs listening to girls whose parents she ki
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA: A drunk driver was seen crying in court as she listened to victim impact statements from three girls whose parents she killed in an accident, leaving them without parents. On Friday, July 29, Grace Coleman, who is 23 years old, was seen wiping tears from her eyes at the Newport Beach court house.
After she admitted to killing Henry Eduardo Saldana-Mejia, 27, and his wife Gabriela Andrade, 28, in December 2020, she was given a 21-year prison sentence.
A letter from Elena Saldana-Mejia said, “I miss my mom and dad.” A family member read this from the letter. The whole letter was put out on a table in a courtroom. “When the accident happened, it made me sad,” the letter said. The judge, Gregg Prickett, who is in charge of the case, took a moment to calm down. “Those sweet girls, I’m sorry,” he said with a crack in his voice.
What is her name?
Coleman killed the couple in December 2020 when she crashed her Range Rover Sport into their Nissan Versa. At the time, the family was out shopping for Christmas lights. Elena and her sisters Emma, Sofia, and Samantha were between 1 and 5 years old at the time, and they were said to be wearing their Christmas pajamas. People say that they sat in the wreck and cried. Coleman was almost three times over the legal limit when the police caught him soon after. Even though a friend drove her home that day, she got in her car again later.
Coleman also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and hurting someone, driving while her blood alcohol content (BAC) was at or above the legal limit of.08%, and not stopping after a hit-and-run that caused injury and death. She also admitted to misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence (DUI) and driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) over the legal limit (in August 2020). If this case had gone to court, she could have gotten at least 42 years and 8 months in prison.
In court on Friday, the girls’ drawings and writing were shown and read out loud. “If they ever get married, who will walk them down the aisle? Who will dance with them at their 15th birthday party?” According to the Daily Mail, Jennifer Gutierrez, a cousin of the victims, told the court what she knew.
Gabriela Andrade’s mother, Mayra Amaro, said outside of the court that the girls were in pain. “They’re the ones who cry for their dead mother and father,” she said. The crash hurt the girls very badly, and they still need to have surgeries. At the time, their legs were broken, but they have mostly gotten better now. They live in San Diego with their mom’s aunt, with help from other family members.
In a civil suit, the family is going after Coleman. Coleman’s parents are also named in the lawsuit because they let her drive the Range Rover even though she had been caught driving drunk twice before. The lawyer for the family, Jeffrey T. Roberts, said that the sentencing hearing was “probably the most moving thing I’ve ever seen.” He said that Coleman talked to the family in person and told them how sorry she was. Roberts said, “This was the first time she met the little girls face to face.” “I know that the family had been telling her about what they had lost. Now she was right in front of them.”
“Ms. Coleman admitted to the judge that she was to blame for this whole terrible thing,” Coleman’s lawyer, Paul Meyer, said. “We appreciate the judge’s wisdom in weighing Grace Coleman’s age, full acceptance of responsibility, strong rehabilitation, and a year of selfless community service while she was in jail against the very sad nature of the tragedy.”
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