It is with utter disgust that I write this letter. Jordyn Weichert and Samantha Bowling face a maximum of 10 1/2 years in prison for killing three people while driving under the influence? When is this country going to get its act together and start handing down sentences that are commiserate with the crime committed?
On June 11, 1995, I was a fresh Oak Harbor High School graduate and on a graduation road trip with three friends. We were hit head-on by a driver who had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit and was under the influence of drugs. I was critically injured along with two of the other girls in the car and our good friend, Chrissy Priest, was killed instantly.
The driver who hit us was also killed, but I wonder — what would have happened to him if he had lived? The three of us who survived the accident spent months in the hospital, years recovering and will live with the memories of that day forever. Where would the driver be today, 15 years later? Most likely out of prison and going about his daily life; if Jordyn is only facing 10 years for killing three people, then he would probably have faced much less for only one death.
It doesn’t seem quite fair that he would be able to do that while Chrissy never saw her 18th birthday and the rest of us struggled to survive and recover.
How fortunate for Jordyn that she will be represented by Diego Vargas, a prominent DUI attorney who states on his website:
“We also understand how stressful and difficult personally it can be to endure the process of being charged with a DUI. Our attorneys and staff will do everything possible to ease the anguish and stress of going through the court system, all the while protecting your interests and fighting for the best result for you.”
Maybe she should have thought about how stressful this will be for her before she got behind the wheel under the influence. How about the stress Erin Wood must be feeling right now? I can’t imagine the pain of instantly losing my husband and the father of my child because of the decision of an ignorant 20 year old. Will there be someone there to ease her anguish and stress?
I hope that at the end of this process Erin Wood will feel some sort of closure and know that the person who killed her husband will be punished accordingly. However, if history repeats itself, Jordyn will probably be a free woman back on the roads of Oak Harbor in a few years.
Bridgett Quinn Duvall
