The Sentencing
Today was the sentencing for the woman who killed my godmother. My mom and sister were in attendance. My mom was worried because the judge was starting to sound like he wanted to let her go free with time served already (it's been about a year). Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Today, family, friends, and a psychologist got to speak on behalf of Rodriguez, the woman who killed my godmother. The DA apparently ripped into the psychologist. The psychologist kept calling her an "exemplary mother", so the DA got him to admit that 1) he had only spent a total of 3 hours with her; 2) most of that time was not spent in conversation, but watching her fill in bubbles on a questionnaire; 3) the social anxiety "fog" she was supposedly in at the time was probably not actually social anxiety but caused by the liquor-store's worth of booze in her system giving her a blood-alcohol content of twice the legal limit; 4) that an "exemplary mother" probably didn't take her kids with her to an all-night drinking party where she didn't know anyone at the party, then proceed to get hammered, and THEN leave her kids in the house full of strangers after a full night of partying to drive home some party guests, whom she also did not know.
"But the kids were in a closed room so she could check on them regularly!" "But would an 'exemplary mother' have brought them to the party in the first place? Would an 'exemplary mother' get that drunk in front of her kids? Would an 'exemplary mother' take them to a party that lasted all night?" "Uh, well, probably not". That was my mom's summary of that bit of cross examination. When I related the bit about not knowing anyone at the party to datan0de tonight, the first words out of his mouth were "so she left her kids in a housefull of STRANGERS?!" I don't know if that was mentioned in court today, but yeah, not examples of "exemplary motherhood".
I thought she was a terrible person before. Every time one of my family learns something new about her and passes it on to me, she becomes even more despicable. Also, after she crashed her car for the third time and she ran on foot away from the third crime scene, she managed to knock on a neighbor's door, asking to use the phone, claiming that she had just been the victim of a hit-and-run. Fortunately, the neighbor didn't believe her and didn't let her in, which is when, I assume, the witnesses trying to chase her down caught up to her. My mom didn't actually say anything about her capture today, but I was told last time that witnesses had chased her down, including the first guy she hit (who stopped to check on my godmother before he was urged to continue the chase), so I surmised that.
Oh, and for some reason, she also managed to get married during this past year while she was incarcerated.
Finally the judge passed sentence. There were, from what I understand, 4 options: time served, 4 years and 8 months in prison, 6 years and 8 months in prison, or 10 years and 8 months in prison. The judge said that if she had not plead guilty and the case went to trial, he was certain she would have gotten the maximum sentence. But because she plead guilty, her sentenced was reduced to 6 years and 8 months in prison. The DA thinks she will probably do about 85% of that time, and also will subtract the 1-ish year she has already served while awaiting sentencing. That brings it to roughly 4 and a half years total in jail.
I'm pissed, but my godmother's daughters are just glad the whole thing is over and that she didn't get away with time served. Apparently one of them said today that all she wanted was a real apology - to know that Rodriguez was really remorseful - and since she did apologize today in court, it's all good. Since it's their mother who was killed, I'm glad they can find some sort of peace in this, but as for me ... fuck that. There is no way to make up for taking Diana's life and nothing she can do to make me feel better about it. Time will make it less painful, but she can't make it any better because she can't bring Diana back.
But I do want her to feel remorse, and I want her to feel that remorse every day for the rest of her life. Because a person should feel bad in proportion to the amount of bad decisions one makes - and I'm hard-pressed to think of any worse decisions she could have made that night without coming up with deliberate malice, or of any more bad decisions she could have possibly made in one night/morning. When people don't feel bad about their shitty decisions, especially those that harm other people, that leads them to repeating them.
Stupidity is not fatal to the stupid person often enough, and far too often is it fatal to those around them. If the stupid people can't take themselves out of the gene pool when they ought to, or be removed from society before they hurt others, then the least that can happen is that they have a serious enough consequence that they feel like shit about it forever to make them not be stupid anymore. Unfortunately, I know enough arrogantly stupid people to know that this doesn't happen often enough either.
Oh, and the court declared that she owed my godmother's estate/family $172,710. The DA says that the family won't see any of that money - if she pays anything back, it'll go to court fees and insurance before the family gets their share. And she'll never make enough to reach the limit where the family would get their share.
Apparently, if I understood my mom correctly, prisoners have the option of working a job while in prison - it's not mandatory. Of course, they make pennies on the dollar for wages. Mom says it's just enough to occasionally buy things like candy. But in her case, should she choose to work while incarcerated, every cent she makes will go to her restitution. That's something, I guess.
Today, family, friends, and a psychologist got to speak on behalf of Rodriguez, the woman who killed my godmother. The DA apparently ripped into the psychologist. The psychologist kept calling her an "exemplary mother", so the DA got him to admit that 1) he had only spent a total of 3 hours with her; 2) most of that time was not spent in conversation, but watching her fill in bubbles on a questionnaire; 3) the social anxiety "fog" she was supposedly in at the time was probably not actually social anxiety but caused by the liquor-store's worth of booze in her system giving her a blood-alcohol content of twice the legal limit; 4) that an "exemplary mother" probably didn't take her kids with her to an all-night drinking party where she didn't know anyone at the party, then proceed to get hammered, and THEN leave her kids in the house full of strangers after a full night of partying to drive home some party guests, whom she also did not know.
"But the kids were in a closed room so she could check on them regularly!" "But would an 'exemplary mother' have brought them to the party in the first place? Would an 'exemplary mother' get that drunk in front of her kids? Would an 'exemplary mother' take them to a party that lasted all night?" "Uh, well, probably not". That was my mom's summary of that bit of cross examination. When I related the bit about not knowing anyone at the party to datan0de tonight, the first words out of his mouth were "so she left her kids in a housefull of STRANGERS?!" I don't know if that was mentioned in court today, but yeah, not examples of "exemplary motherhood".
I thought she was a terrible person before. Every time one of my family learns something new about her and passes it on to me, she becomes even more despicable. Also, after she crashed her car for the third time and she ran on foot away from the third crime scene, she managed to knock on a neighbor's door, asking to use the phone, claiming that she had just been the victim of a hit-and-run. Fortunately, the neighbor didn't believe her and didn't let her in, which is when, I assume, the witnesses trying to chase her down caught up to her. My mom didn't actually say anything about her capture today, but I was told last time that witnesses had chased her down, including the first guy she hit (who stopped to check on my godmother before he was urged to continue the chase), so I surmised that.
Oh, and for some reason, she also managed to get married during this past year while she was incarcerated.
Finally the judge passed sentence. There were, from what I understand, 4 options: time served, 4 years and 8 months in prison, 6 years and 8 months in prison, or 10 years and 8 months in prison. The judge said that if she had not plead guilty and the case went to trial, he was certain she would have gotten the maximum sentence. But because she plead guilty, her sentenced was reduced to 6 years and 8 months in prison. The DA thinks she will probably do about 85% of that time, and also will subtract the 1-ish year she has already served while awaiting sentencing. That brings it to roughly 4 and a half years total in jail.
I'm pissed, but my godmother's daughters are just glad the whole thing is over and that she didn't get away with time served. Apparently one of them said today that all she wanted was a real apology - to know that Rodriguez was really remorseful - and since she did apologize today in court, it's all good. Since it's their mother who was killed, I'm glad they can find some sort of peace in this, but as for me ... fuck that. There is no way to make up for taking Diana's life and nothing she can do to make me feel better about it. Time will make it less painful, but she can't make it any better because she can't bring Diana back.
But I do want her to feel remorse, and I want her to feel that remorse every day for the rest of her life. Because a person should feel bad in proportion to the amount of bad decisions one makes - and I'm hard-pressed to think of any worse decisions she could have made that night without coming up with deliberate malice, or of any more bad decisions she could have possibly made in one night/morning. When people don't feel bad about their shitty decisions, especially those that harm other people, that leads them to repeating them.
Stupidity is not fatal to the stupid person often enough, and far too often is it fatal to those around them. If the stupid people can't take themselves out of the gene pool when they ought to, or be removed from society before they hurt others, then the least that can happen is that they have a serious enough consequence that they feel like shit about it forever to make them not be stupid anymore. Unfortunately, I know enough arrogantly stupid people to know that this doesn't happen often enough either.
Oh, and the court declared that she owed my godmother's estate/family $172,710. The DA says that the family won't see any of that money - if she pays anything back, it'll go to court fees and insurance before the family gets their share. And she'll never make enough to reach the limit where the family would get their share.
Apparently, if I understood my mom correctly, prisoners have the option of working a job while in prison - it's not mandatory. Of course, they make pennies on the dollar for wages. Mom says it's just enough to occasionally buy things like candy. But in her case, should she choose to work while incarcerated, every cent she makes will go to her restitution. That's something, I guess.