Daytona Beach, FL – A 44-year-old Daytona Beach woman faces 15 years in prison for a driving under the influence crash that killed another woman nearly 3 years ago.
A 6-person Volusia County jury found Sandra Dee Heilman guilty of DUI causing death on Thursday in the November 2012 wreck that took the life of 22-year-old Laura Hrobsky.
Spencer Hathaway – a spokesman for 7th Circuit State Attorney RJ Larizza – says Heilman’s sentencing date hasn’t been set yet.
“Further evidence showed that Heilman was likely distracted by her cell phone at the time of the crash,” Hathaway added.
The Daytona Beach Police Department arrested Heilman on November 10, 2012, the same day the accident took place.
According to the arrest report, Heilman was going 61 miles per hour in a 35 mile-per-hour zone on Beville Road near the South Nova Road intersection when she rear-ended Hrobsky’s vehicle with her 2007 Ford Fusion around 3:15am.
Officers say the impact spun both vehicles clockwise for around 100 feet from the initial point of contact and that the impact crushed the driver’s side of Hrobsky’s vehicle by more than 2 feet.
Blood drawn from Heilman’s body at the scene showed that her blood alcohol content was over double the legal limit and that she had been smoking marijuana just before the accident, per the report. Officers also found marijuana in Heilman’s car when processing the vehicle for evidence.
When questioned initially, Heilman claimed her vehicle was hit while she stopped at a red light on the eastbound side of Beville, but DBPD says the physical evidence showed she was driving on the westbound side and that she never hit the breaks before hitting Hrobsky’s vehicle.
An autopsy shows the accident fractured 2 vertebra in Hrobsky’s neck and back and that she died at the scene.
Sandra Dee Heilman (mugshot courtesy Volusia County Jail)
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.