A woman who was driving a car that ran off the road last fall and killed a recent university graduate pled guilty last week in Alexandria, Va., federal court to involuntary manslaughter and maiming while driving intoxicated.
Ashley Roberta, 22, who had graduated from the university last May, was a passenger in the 2004 Infiniti that nearly split in two after striking a guardrail on the George Washington Parkway.
Maria Alejandra Espinoza, 23, of Clarksville, drank alcohol before the single-vehicle accident, according to media reports. The October 2009 accident also injured U.S. national soccer forward Charlie Davies, another passenger in the Infiniti.
Espinoza could face a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison, but prosecutors on both sides recommended a sentence of between 37 and 46 months, according to media reports. She will also pay restitution to the victims.
In an affidavit, a police detective said Espinoza told officers she was fixing her GPS when Roberta suddenly yelled “Watch out,” and the car hit the guardrail, media reports said.
Police found a 113-foot tire track, but there was no evidence the car had attempted to brake, according to the reports.
Roberta, of Phoenix, Md., graduated from Mercy High School in Baltimore and was a criminology and criminal justice major at this university. At the time of the crash, she was living in Baltimore and organizing events at this university with Red Bull of America. She was also interviewing for jobs as a paralegal and wanted to attend law school, a friend of Roberta’s told The Diamondback last year.
Immediately after Roberta’s death, friends described her as vivacious, friendly and outgoing.
“She’s the girl in the room that everyone wants to talk to,” Lauren Palmere, a friend of Roberta’s, said last year. “She was the life of the party — 99 percent of the time she had a smile on her face. She’s one in a million.”
Friends of Roberta could not be reached to comment on Espinoza’s guilty plea. Her grandmother referred calls to Roberta’s parents, who could not be reached.
Espinoza received minor injuries during the crash, according to media reports on court documents made public last December.
Davies had fractures to his right leg, left elbow, eye socket and nose; tore a ligament in his left knee; had a lacerated bladder and sustained “serious head trauma,” according to media reports of court documents. He has undergone several surgeries and months of physical therapy but was not well enough to be considered to play for the U.S. World Cup team this summer, according to media reports.
roubein at umdbk dot com
