What We're Reading
Driver in Davies car crash gets two years in Federal prison
- Washington Post, Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:42 PM
Maria Alejandra Espinoza, who pleaded guilty last November to involuntary manslaughter and maiming while driving intoxicated in the 2009 car crash that
killed Ashley Roberta, her best friend, and seriously injured U.S. national team star Charlie Davies, was sentenced to
two years in Federal prison on Friday.
Espinoza, whose blood alcohol content was almost twice the legal limit, was returning Davies to the national team hotel before the last 2010 World
Cup qualifying match against when she crashed into a guard rail. She apologized in her appearance before the sentencing judge. “It’s obvious that everyone in here lost,” she said.
“Nobody gained anything. Me going away will give the family some sense of justice. ... I am not a bad person, but I made a bad choice.”
She could have gotten 3-4 years in
prison, according to sentencing guidelines, and prosecutors questioned Espinoza’s remorse. The judge had placed Espinoza under home detention after a private investigator hired by the lawyer for
Roberta’s family said she saw Espinoza drinking wine in a restaurant and later taking shots at a Baltimore club.
Davies, who submitted a written sentence to the court at sentencing,
suffered multiple injuries, including a broken fibula, tibia and femur of his right leg, torn ligaments in his left knee, a lacerated bladder, a fractured left elbow, facial injuries and serious head
trauma, and only returned to first-team action Saturday.
