Columbia woman gets 120-day program, suspended sentence after plea deal in deadly crash
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A woman who reached a deal with the state to drop a manslaughter charge for a deadly Columbia hit-and-run crash was sentenced to a short jail stay and probation Tuesday.
Judge Ben Miller sentenced Elizabeth Lopez to seven years in prison on three hit-and-run charges, but the judge suspended the sentence, with five years of probation. She will have to serve in a 120-day jail program.
Elizabeth Lopez was charged with second-degree involuntary manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident following the collision on West Broadway that killed 18-year-old Walker Davis and injured two others in 2023. She pleaded guilty on March 23 to three counts of leaving the scene and the manslaughter charge was dropped.
After the crash, police say Lopez re-entered the Kelly's Ridge apartments parking lot and fled the scene. Court documents allege she went back to her apartment and told her boyfriend about the crash. While officers investigated the scene and towed her vehicle from outside the apartment, Lopez allegedly did not make herself known to the police until the morning after.
Following her arrest, Lopez later paid a $7,500 bond after the August crash.
The state initially asked for the sentence to be 11 years in prison. The defense asked for probation with the guidelines to be determined by Miller.
The court heard several victim impact statements, including from the two other crash victims and several from Davis' family.
"You have taken my son," Davis' mother Mary Davis said. "You've torn away all of my happy memories and replaced them with visions of my son's dead body after you left him on the road to die."
"If a life sentence was on the table, I would advocate for it, because that's what she gave us a life sentence without one of our children," Davis' father Brad Davis, said.
Bodycam footage of police interactions with Lopez the morning after the crash was shown to Miller. Lopez could be heard saying, "I just panicked," and “I wasn’t trying to do a hit and run, I just didn’t know what to do in the moment." to the officer.
Lopez's attorney, Jessica Caldera, pointed out that the motorcyclists in the crash were driving over 70 miles per hour. Lopez also allegedly did not realize she hurt anyone in the crash.
"There's no evidence that Elizabeth ever stopped and examined her car or really looked at the scene, or rather, she just ran to her apartment and freaked out in private," Caldera said. "She thought she was in the shoulder, that's not exactly a criminal mastermind story."
Caldera adds that while it was delayed, Lopez did later contact the police by calling 311.
"A prison sentence, much less than a near maximum prison sentence, will not bring Walker Davis back," Caldera said. "A prison sentence would only spread the ripples of harm and hurt that this one accident had already caused."
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Buchanan claims that Lopez was aware of the damage to her vehicle long before notifying police and that Lopez did not seem concerned if others were harmed.
"She never once asked how any of the riders were, 'Is everyone okay?' Not once did she inquire about the safety of the riders," Buchanan said.
In his decision, Miller said justice was "complicated." He took into account that there wasn't a clear driver at fault in the crash, and that Lopez later took accountability both with the police and during court proceedings.
However, Miller agreed that Lopez's lack of concern for the other riders following the crash aided in his decision. Bodycam footage also featured Lopez telling the officer at her door that he already had her license plate number since her car's bumper fell off due to the crash, which Miller pointed out.
"You took the time to look at it, to realize that your license plate wasn't there," Miller said. "We can't have a situation in which a felony of this level occurs and no further time is served other than an evening before you bonded out."
