A North Carolina woman will spend up to a year in the county jail in connection with a traffic crash that killed her 15-year-old passenger last March.
In a plea agreement reached at a preliminary hearing Monday, Alyssa Stark, 20, of Mebane, N.C., pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and no contest to a charge of moving violation causing death. In exchange, two other charges were dismissed.
Allegan County Prosecutor’s office indicated the maximum penalty for moving violation causing death is a year in jail.
Stark was the driver of a vehicle in Wayland Township March 19 when she lost control and it crashed into a fence off southbound U.S.-131 and flipped over on 12th Street which runs parallel to the expressway.
A back seat passenger, Danielle Brown-Johnson, 15, of Grand Rapids, was killed. She was not wearing a seat belt. Two other passengers suffered minor injuries.
Allegan County Sheriff’s authorities have maintained Stark, who is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5, was under influence of marijuana at the time of the crash.
