LOS ANGELES (AP) — A substance-abuse counselor who struck a pedestrian with her car and drove through a Los Angeles suburb with the dying man on her windshield has been sentenced to 55 years to life in prison.
Fifty-three-year-old Sherri Lynn Wilkins was sentenced Thursday after being convicted of second-degree murder, drunken driving and hit-and-run.
Prosecutors say Wilkins’ blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit when she struck 31-year-old Phillip Moreno in 2012.
She drove two miles before other motorists were able to swarm her car at a traffic light and keep her there until police arrived.
Wilkins, who was an addict before she became a drug and alcohol counselor, said she had been drinking that night but wasn’t drunk.
She was leaving a counseling center when she hit Moreno.