Laughing jailhouse phone call gets woman tough sentence

CNN ^ | 1/24/2008 | AP

[Red in Blue PA]

TUCSON, Arizona (AP) -- A judge sentenced a woman to nearly the maximum prison term for negligent homicide after hearing a recorded jail conversation in which she made light of the bicyclist she killed.

Don't Miss KGUN: Listen to recording of Arrington's phone call Melissa Arrington, 27, was convicted two months ago of negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated DUI in connection with the December 2006 death of Paul L'Ecuyer.

[Red in Blue PA]

If it was up to me, I'd find a way to lose the key. And although I am a biker, I would say this even if I wasn't.

[wideawake]

Disgusting. Good for the judge.

[Red in Blue PA]

L’Ecuyer had many such dreams. He lived a spartan lifestyle, riding his bicycle everywhere so he’d have more money available to help others. Just a week or so before his death, L’Ecuyer - who had only $600 to his name - spent $150 for a grocery gift card to give to a family on Thanksgiving.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/74912.php

[r9etb]

[wideawake]

Slack-jawed drunken street trash.

[rocksblues]

Bet this sicko won’t have much to laugh at for the next ten years.

[Red in Blue PA]

Even that “tough” sentence is too light IMO. People such as this would would laugh at the death of someone they killed are sociopaths. Period.

[r9etb]

Slack-jawed drunken street trash.

'bout sums it up. I was just waiting for somebody to show up with an assessment of her guilt.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Not to defend her, but her laughter sounds uncomfortable and forced. And while she says she agrees with the statement, she didn’t actually say those things, the idiot caller did.

[Mr. Brightside]

Yeah, I agree. Sentence her harshly for the crime, but not because of the words of someone else and the judge’s perceived meaning of her uncomfortable laugh.

[-YYZ-]

“Sentence her harshly for the crime”

OK. From near the end of the article:

“Arrington’s blood-alcohol content was .156 percent, nearly double Arizona’s .08 legal limit. She had been driving on a suspended license for a prior DUI”

Zero sympathy here. Driving drunk on a license suspended for a DUI. If this was a first offense with a marginal BAC, I’d be more lenient.

[ontap]

She’ll never serve ten years!

[reagan_fanatic]

Slack-jawed drunken street trash

You're being too kind.

[rocksblues]

Yeah, thats the sad part.

[OB1kNOb]

Let’s see you laugh it up now, funny girl.

[RGSpincich]

Melissa Arrington, 27

Hard to believe that a person could get so stupid in such a short amount of time. One indefensible mistake after another.

[Mr. Brightside]

My problem is with the psyco-babble interpretations of people’s responses in certain situations.

The police make often guilt or innocent assumptions based on people’s reactions to bad news.... “I immediately suspected he killed his wife because he showed no emotion when we questioned him.”

[AnAmericanMother]

At which point she should have said, "Shut up, you idiot. A man's dead." Anybody with an ounce of compassion would have. And anybody with an ounce of sense would have known the whole thing was being recorded.

Of course, if she had any sense she wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place. Driving knee-walking drunk on a suspended license . . . . !

[Drew68]

Arrington's blood-alcohol content was .156 percent, nearly double Arizona's .08 legal limit. She had been driving on a suspended license for a prior DUI.

Despite MADD's efforts to continually lower the BAC for "drunk" driving, these are precisely the people who are causing most fatal accidents.

[TChris]

L’Ecuyer had many such dreams. He lived a spartan lifestyle, riding his bicycle everywhere so he’d have more money available to help others. Just a week or so before his death, L’Ecuyer - who had only $600 to his name - spent $150 for a grocery gift card to give to a family on Thanksgiving.

Aww, jeez. The human being with a heart is the one who was taken, to leave us with the frigid death queen instead.

How tragic.