Texas Woman Sentenced in Distracted Driving Case

A state district judge in Texas has sentenced a woman to 30 days in jail, 10 years probation and ordered her to pay a $10,000 fine for criminally negligent homicide in connection with a case of “distracted driving.”

Twenty-four-year-old Jeri Montgomery was sentenced Oct. 5 for a March 2008 three-car crash that killed 25-year-old Chance Wilcox. Wilcox was thrown from a car that crashed after Montgomery illegally changed lanes trying to get on a freeway she had missed.

Montgomery can’t drive until further notice. Judge Herb Ritchie ordered Montgomery to pay Wilcox’s funeral expenses.

Assistant District Attorney Brent Mayr said Montgomery wasn’t on her cell phone, but had been talking on it just before the wreck.

Montgomery’s attorney John Choate said the prosecution was politically motivated to make an example of the tragedy.

Information from: Houston Chronicle, www.houstonchronicle.com