GARNETT— Connie McCormick, 47, will spend the next year in an Anderson County jail cell for vehicular homicide for driving the car that crashed near Colony and killed her 13-year-old niece 22 months ago.
McCormick was driving home from a Kansas City-area methadone clinic May 27, 2010, with Royster Middle School student Mary Jane Robertson when she lost control of her 1999 Ford Expedition.
The vehicle was southbound on U.S. 169 when it entered a ditch and vaulted over a culvert at 700 Road. Landing on the south side of the county road, the vehicle rolled end-to-end two times and ejected Robertson through the rear hatch.
Robertson, who was sleeping near the rear of the vehicle when it entered the ditch, was not wearing a seat belt. She was dead at the scene.
McCormick pleaded guilty Feb. 23 to the vehicular homicide charge under the condition other charges against her — involuntary manslaughter, failing to have proper license, operating an unregistered vehicle and driving without properly restraining a child — would be dropped.
Last November an Anderson County judge threw out a second-degree murder charge against McCormick.
The one-year jail sentence was a the maximum sentence for the class A misdemeanor. McCormick won’t be required to serve a probationary sentence after her release in March 2013.
