Calif. Woman Sentenced to 6 Years for Fatal Texting Crash
The 49-year-old driver was in the middle of paying a bill via her cell phone when she struck a vehicle that burst into flames.
A woman who crashed into a line of stopped vehicles while text-messaging on her cell phone has been sentenced to six years in a California prison for killing the female passenger of one of the vehicles, according to the New York Times.
Deborah Matis-Engle was sentenced April 3 by a judge in Redding, Calif.
Investigators said Deborah Matis-Engle was speeding and text messaging when she slammed into the vehicles stopped at a construction zone in August 2007.
Shasta County prosecutor Stephanie Bridgett said the 49-year-old woman had paid several bills by cell phone in the moments before the crash.
She was in the middle of one of those transactions when she struck a vehicle that burst into flames, killing 46-year-old Petra Winn.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Stotter said he will appeal.
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