Hours before Anna Marie Crim crashed her car, leaving her 2-year-old daughter paralyzed from the neck down, Crim had taken methadone to treat her drug addiction, smoked marijuana and taken Xanax and Klonopin pills, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Her boyfriend's sister told authorities that on Feb. 26, 2008, Crim, who was seven months pregnant, slurred her words, stumbled when she walked and nodded off while standing. The behavior concerned the sister so much that she begged Crim to leave her daughter, Alexis Ratcliff, with her. Crim refused, Assistant District Attorney Drew Cochran said in Forsyth Superior Court.
After a trip to the grocery store, the toddler was moved from her unsecured car seat in back to sit in her father's lap in the front seat, Cochran said. Crim was driving north on Main Street in Kernersville when she veered off the road and hit a parked car.
The toddler was crushed between the dashboard and her father, according to Crim's attorney.
Alexis, now 5, lives with her paternal grandfather, Randy Ratcliff, and requires nursing care 20 hours a day. Cochran said Alexis has had lung infections, pneumonia and seizures and suffers from scoliosis, which is curvature of the spine. She is expected never to walk again, and it's not known how long she will live, he said.
The baby Crim was carrying at the time of the accident now lives with the paternal grandfather's brother.
Crim, 25, pleaded guilty Wednesday to assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, assault inflicting serious bodily injury and misdemeanor driving while license revoked. Judge Todd Burke sentenced her to 24 to 38 months in prison after consolidating the misdemeanor into the assault with a deadly weapon charge. The judge and prosecutor said that under state law, the judge could sentence her on only one assault charge.
Crim also faces three felony counts of drug trafficking in opium or heroin, and one felony count of possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver heroin in Stokes County.
District Attorney Jim O'Neill said after the hearing that prosecutors were creative and consulted with the N.C. Attorney General's Office in finding the appropriate charge for Crim.
"I've been to visit the little girl, and it's a heart-breaking situation," he said. "You can't leave her side without welling up with tears."
In court Wednesday, Crim's voice trembled as she apologized for her actions that day more than three years ago.
"My daughter was so full of life, and I'm so sorry this car accident has taken this away from her," Crim said. "It kills me for Alexis to be in the condition she is in. I love Alexis with all my heart."
She told Burke she wished that she â€" not Alexis â€" had been injured in the accident.
Dustin Ratcliff, Alexis' father and Crim's boyfriend, who wasn't wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, should have been held partly responsible, said Jason Crump, Crim's attorney. Ratcliff was not charged.
But O'Neill said prosecutors charged Crim because she was the driver and bore the ultimate responsibility in making sure her child was safe.
Crump also said that Crim became addicted to drugs when she was 16 after she was diagnosed years earlier with cervical cancer. She was never a heroin user, he said. It was not clear what drug she was addicted to.
Cochran said in court that Crim and Ratcliff had taken methadone at a drug-treatment clinic, then went to Crim's parents' house, where she smoked marijuana. Dustin Ratcliff told authorities that he saw Crim take Xanax and Klonopin, both prescription anti-anxiety drugs.
Then they drove to Ratcliff's sister's house, where Ratcliff lived, Cochran said. Ratcliff's sister had told her brother that he had to move out of the house. After packing his belongings into the car's trunk, Crim and Ratcliff went to a Food Lion store. The groceries were put in the back seat. Alexis was taken out of her child seat, which wasn't fastened to the car, and was put on Ratcliff's lap, Cochran said.
Randy Ratcliff said that Crim didn't get nearly enough time in prison, but he hopes that she will get additional time from the charges she faces in Stokes County. The child's aunt, Alisa Hutson, said the accident has left Alexis unable to move any part of her body except her head.
"(Crim) took 99 percent of her life," she said.
mhewlett@wsjournal.com
(336) 727-7326
No comments:
Post a Comment