Fatal DWI leads to 45-year term
By Craig Kapitan - Express-NewsWith Police Chief William McManus in the front row of the courtroom, District Attorney Susan Reed appealed to jurors Friday to demonstrate the community's disgust with drunken driving by sentencing Sandra Briggs to life in prison for causing the death of an officer.
The jurors didn't. But they came pretty close. They ordered Briggs, 59, to serve 45 years, and determined the Mazda Protégé she had attempted to drive home from the Bunratty Pub was used as a deadly weapon, meaning she will have to serve at least half of the sentence — and wait past her 81st birthday — before she can apply for parole.
The group deliberated about 41/2 hours.
