(no subject)
The following is reposted from my MySpace account:
Hi! Natalie has given me permission to share her story and I felt this was a good place to do that. Natalie is accused of driving drunk in a crash that killed her best friend, Joshua Chavez. On the 21st of February she will be sentenced for the charge of vehicular homicide while under the influence. She has decided to plead guilty.
Natalie and Chavez were returning from a party Oct. 9 when she rounded a bend and hit a tree. Chavez died at the scene. Natalie was unconcious for 3 days before she found out that her friend was dead. She didn't remember the crash. She was devistated by the news of what happened. She finally found out in December through a meeting with her attourney and the DA what all had happened. She was shown pictures of the accident at this meeting which will haunt her for the rest of her life. Natalie truely realizes the gravity of her actions that night and will be living with it for the rest of her life. Natalie plans on sharing her story with other people in hopes of helping others to understand what can happen when they drink and drive, and the devistation alcoholism can cause.
She is going to be going to prison for 3-5 years. I will be managing and updating her myspace account while she is away. She has asked me to post her letters to her blog on myspace and I will be. Also, I will be sending her letters from people who would like to write her or who respond to her blog posts. She would really like to have some penpals and to build a better support system. If you are interested in being her penpal, reading about her life on the inside, being a part of her support system, or whatever... you can go to the following links:
Her group:
FRIENDS OF NATALIE
CLICK HERE to get to Natalie's Blog
Add her as your friend?
.>
If you have any questions, concerns, or issues, please feel free to message me.
NATALIES SENTENCE...
I'm not sure where to start or what to say. Lets start off with this, Natalie was sentenced to 60 months (thats 5 years) in Purdy. I don't think I've felt this shitty since my friend Craig died in 1998. Seeing someone I am so close to and such good friends with go thru such an intense thing is almost indescrible!
I met up with Natalie and her BF around noon in downtown Olympia. I was actually suppose to meet her at the courthouse house but she just happened to be having lunch with her BF downtown and Ric and I were on on way to catch the bus to meet her when we ran into her. So, we rode up to the courthouse with them. Natalie was doing her tough little cookie thing and being a little sarcastic on the way there. But when we first met up I could see it in her face... she was sad and scared. We got to the courthouse and met up with her sponsor and her mother. Her sponsor took some pictures of Natalie and some of Nat and her BF, and some of Nat and me... and it seem so surreal... like she was just going on a trip or something ya know. So we went inside after smoking to wait for afternoon court to start up. It was about 12:45 and court didn't start back up till 1:30. We all sat around on the benches outside the room bullshitting and waiting. While we were sitting there one of her sisters showed up. A little before 1:30 Natalies attourney gets her and they go talk for a few, then court started and we all went in. It was a little tense in there... not sure if it was just me or if that was just the general nature of the room at the time. Chavez's family wasn't there yet. There were a couple of inmates up for sentencing before Natalie and I wondered what she was feeling. I wondered if she was wishing that they would just hurry the fuck up or if she wished time would go slower. I tryed to listen to the other cases before hers... not sure why, maybe I was trying to distract my self a little. I knew things were going to get heavy, I just didn't know how heavy. During the sentencing of the second inmate, Chavez's family came into to the courtroom. I didn't even have to turn around and look to know who they were... I could feel it. When they came in the whole dynamic of the room changed and was way more intense. They finally got to Natalies case and called her up. The Judge told her she was being charged with Vechicular Homicide while Driving Under the Influence and asked her if she understood that and if her attourney had explained it to her, she said yes. He asked her if she was changing her plea to guilty and she said yes. He asked her if anyone had threaten or promised her anything to get her to change her plea, she said no. Her attourney gave the judge some letters from her counselors and friends and he took time to review them. Afterwards he talked a little bit about the letters and then asked the district attourney to read the case. He read about what lead up to the accident and the accident. He talked about the acccident scene briefly and how Natalie was unconcious when the police and fire and rescue arrived. He talked about her blood alcohol content. Then he asked the courts permission for Chavez's family to come up and speak. The family came up with a collage of pictures of Chavez, which they displayed for the court, and his mother addressed the court. She had about 4 or 5 pages of what I believe was a letter that she began to read. She talked about the morning it all happened and how she recieved a phone call at 2:30am that her son had been in an accident. She talked about the thoughts that went through her head and how she drove to the accident and was stopped by an officer on the scene. She told the officer that she was the mother of one of the people in the accident and wanted to know how her son was. The officer told her that they were still trying to get him out of the car. By this time Natalie was visibly sobing. His mother continued read about how she waited there, waiting for news of her son for what seemed an eternity. Finally 3 people came walking up to her car, one of them a chaplin, she knew at that point that her son was dead. She talked about going home and telling her family and how devistated they were. She went into great detail about how he died after this listing off every injury and broken bone. She told Natalie that Natalie had murdered her son and said that if there were any questions that she could ask her, they would be; "What were you thinking when you drove that night?"and "What were his last words before he died?"... I believe there were a few more but at the moment I can't remember them. I had already been crying alot. She told Natalie that she didn't hate her among a few other things and then the family went and sat to the side of the courtroom while Natalies attourney began to speak. He said some good things about Natalie and talked about the efforts she has been making since the accident and then he told the judge that Natalie would like permission to appologize to Chavez's family. The judge, the DA, and the family agreed to this and Natalie said " I know sorry is very hollow in times like this, but if God came down from heaven right now and gave me a choice, I would trade places with Chavez in a heartbeat so he could be alive instead of me." She was crying so hard, I don't think she could speak anymore. The judge then spoke and he was having a hard time, this was all so very emotional... for everyone. He suggested to Natalie that she use this expirence to help other people and to help prevent more Chavez's. He told her that this wasn't the first case that he had ruled over with this charge in the last week... and that he wasn't going to treat her any differently than he had treated anyone else. He then gave her a sentence of 36 months plus her additional 24... the extra 24 is because she had a previous DUI from when she was 18. He told her what her fines were and then they put the handcuffs on her. I waited to talk to her and the last thing I said to her was "I love you!" I left and cryed. It was really awful and a very hard thing to see.
Hi! Natalie has given me permission to share her story and I felt this was a good place to do that. Natalie is accused of driving drunk in a crash that killed her best friend, Joshua Chavez. On the 21st of February she will be sentenced for the charge of vehicular homicide while under the influence. She has decided to plead guilty.
Natalie and Chavez were returning from a party Oct. 9 when she rounded a bend and hit a tree. Chavez died at the scene. Natalie was unconcious for 3 days before she found out that her friend was dead. She didn't remember the crash. She was devistated by the news of what happened. She finally found out in December through a meeting with her attourney and the DA what all had happened. She was shown pictures of the accident at this meeting which will haunt her for the rest of her life. Natalie truely realizes the gravity of her actions that night and will be living with it for the rest of her life. Natalie plans on sharing her story with other people in hopes of helping others to understand what can happen when they drink and drive, and the devistation alcoholism can cause.
She is going to be going to prison for 3-5 years. I will be managing and updating her myspace account while she is away. She has asked me to post her letters to her blog on myspace and I will be. Also, I will be sending her letters from people who would like to write her or who respond to her blog posts. She would really like to have some penpals and to build a better support system. If you are interested in being her penpal, reading about her life on the inside, being a part of her support system, or whatever... you can go to the following links:
Her group:
FRIENDS OF NATALIE
CLICK HERE to get to Natalie's Blog
Add her as your friend?
.>
If you have any questions, concerns, or issues, please feel free to message me.
NATALIES SENTENCE...
I'm not sure where to start or what to say. Lets start off with this, Natalie was sentenced to 60 months (thats 5 years) in Purdy. I don't think I've felt this shitty since my friend Craig died in 1998. Seeing someone I am so close to and such good friends with go thru such an intense thing is almost indescrible!
I met up with Natalie and her BF around noon in downtown Olympia. I was actually suppose to meet her at the courthouse house but she just happened to be having lunch with her BF downtown and Ric and I were on on way to catch the bus to meet her when we ran into her. So, we rode up to the courthouse with them. Natalie was doing her tough little cookie thing and being a little sarcastic on the way there. But when we first met up I could see it in her face... she was sad and scared. We got to the courthouse and met up with her sponsor and her mother. Her sponsor took some pictures of Natalie and some of Nat and her BF, and some of Nat and me... and it seem so surreal... like she was just going on a trip or something ya know. So we went inside after smoking to wait for afternoon court to start up. It was about 12:45 and court didn't start back up till 1:30. We all sat around on the benches outside the room bullshitting and waiting. While we were sitting there one of her sisters showed up. A little before 1:30 Natalies attourney gets her and they go talk for a few, then court started and we all went in. It was a little tense in there... not sure if it was just me or if that was just the general nature of the room at the time. Chavez's family wasn't there yet. There were a couple of inmates up for sentencing before Natalie and I wondered what she was feeling. I wondered if she was wishing that they would just hurry the fuck up or if she wished time would go slower. I tryed to listen to the other cases before hers... not sure why, maybe I was trying to distract my self a little. I knew things were going to get heavy, I just didn't know how heavy. During the sentencing of the second inmate, Chavez's family came into to the courtroom. I didn't even have to turn around and look to know who they were... I could feel it. When they came in the whole dynamic of the room changed and was way more intense. They finally got to Natalies case and called her up. The Judge told her she was being charged with Vechicular Homicide while Driving Under the Influence and asked her if she understood that and if her attourney had explained it to her, she said yes. He asked her if she was changing her plea to guilty and she said yes. He asked her if anyone had threaten or promised her anything to get her to change her plea, she said no. Her attourney gave the judge some letters from her counselors and friends and he took time to review them. Afterwards he talked a little bit about the letters and then asked the district attourney to read the case. He read about what lead up to the accident and the accident. He talked about the acccident scene briefly and how Natalie was unconcious when the police and fire and rescue arrived. He talked about her blood alcohol content. Then he asked the courts permission for Chavez's family to come up and speak. The family came up with a collage of pictures of Chavez, which they displayed for the court, and his mother addressed the court. She had about 4 or 5 pages of what I believe was a letter that she began to read. She talked about the morning it all happened and how she recieved a phone call at 2:30am that her son had been in an accident. She talked about the thoughts that went through her head and how she drove to the accident and was stopped by an officer on the scene. She told the officer that she was the mother of one of the people in the accident and wanted to know how her son was. The officer told her that they were still trying to get him out of the car. By this time Natalie was visibly sobing. His mother continued read about how she waited there, waiting for news of her son for what seemed an eternity. Finally 3 people came walking up to her car, one of them a chaplin, she knew at that point that her son was dead. She talked about going home and telling her family and how devistated they were. She went into great detail about how he died after this listing off every injury and broken bone. She told Natalie that Natalie had murdered her son and said that if there were any questions that she could ask her, they would be; "What were you thinking when you drove that night?"and "What were his last words before he died?"... I believe there were a few more but at the moment I can't remember them. I had already been crying alot. She told Natalie that she didn't hate her among a few other things and then the family went and sat to the side of the courtroom while Natalies attourney began to speak. He said some good things about Natalie and talked about the efforts she has been making since the accident and then he told the judge that Natalie would like permission to appologize to Chavez's family. The judge, the DA, and the family agreed to this and Natalie said " I know sorry is very hollow in times like this, but if God came down from heaven right now and gave me a choice, I would trade places with Chavez in a heartbeat so he could be alive instead of me." She was crying so hard, I don't think she could speak anymore. The judge then spoke and he was having a hard time, this was all so very emotional... for everyone. He suggested to Natalie that she use this expirence to help other people and to help prevent more Chavez's. He told her that this wasn't the first case that he had ruled over with this charge in the last week... and that he wasn't going to treat her any differently than he had treated anyone else. He then gave her a sentence of 36 months plus her additional 24... the extra 24 is because she had a previous DUI from when she was 18. He told her what her fines were and then they put the handcuffs on her. I waited to talk to her and the last thing I said to her was "I love you!" I left and cryed. It was really awful and a very hard thing to see.