Tony Rackauckas, District Attorney
401 Civic Center Drive West
Santa Ana, CA 92701
For Immediate Release
January 6, 2012 | Susan Kang Schroeder Farrah Emami |
UNINSURED, DISTRACTED DRIVER SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON FOR KILLING MOTORIST IN CRASH AFTER RUNNING THROUGH RED LIGHT
SANTA ANA – A distracted driver was sentenced today to two years in state prison for killing another motorist by crashing into the victim’s car in an intersection after running through a red light. Laurie Anne Keen, 43, Irvine, pleaded guilty Dec. 15, 2011, to one felony count of vehicular manslaughter, one misdemeanor count of the recent use of a controlled substance, and an infraction for driving without automobile insurance.
At approximately 1:21 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2011, Keen was driving in Irvine in a Chevrolet van southbound on Culver Drive approaching the intersection at Farwell Avenue. The defendant did not have automobile insurance. She failed to pay attention, drove through a red light, and crashed into the driver’s side of a Toyota sedan driven by 77-year-old Patricia Thompson-Yates. The victim was making a legal left turn from eastbound Farwell Avenue to northbound Culver Drive on a green light.
After the initial crash, Keen’s vehicle spun counterclockwise and crashed into the victim’s vehicle a second time. Both cars came to a stop in the middle of the intersection.
Thompson-Yates was transported to Hoag Hospital, Irvine, where she was pronounced dead at 2:04 p.m. due to multiple blunt traumatic injuries. The defendant refused medical care and was not transported to the hospital. A test of the defendant’s blood revealed that she had methamphetamine in her system due to recent use.
During the sentencing today, victim Thompson-Yates’s family tearfully addressed the court. According to the victim’s step-daughter, her stepmother was the only grandmother her daughter had ever known and Keen had robbed their family of her stepmother’s companionship, love and guidance. In a letter read by a victim’s advocate on behalf of the victim’s son Mark LaPointe, he stated, “Mom will never get to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up…now, those grand children, great-grandchildren and everybody else will be deprived of more precious moments with her.”
Deputy District Attorney Nancy Hayashida of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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