Shoplifter gets 21 months in her daughter's death
"After losing your daughter and thinking about what you've done to yourself, it doesn't matter as much what I'm going to do to you," Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight told Durrett.
"I can think of nothing more tragic than looking in the mirror and saying, honestly, 'I killed my child.' "
Despite a two-year prison term recommended by prosecutors, Knight sentenced Durrett to 21 months, the bottom end of the sentencing range for vehicular homicide. Durrett wept and mumbled apologies.
Durrett, 42, of North Bend, pleaded guilty in March to shoplifting about $260 worth of groceries from a Woodinville Albertson's, driving off after being confronted by employees and crashing into a tree just north of the Snohomish County line.
Her 9-year-old daughter, Ladawna, was killed. Durrett suffered major injuries and was in a coma for two weeks.
Prosecutors never charged Durrett with shoplifting, partly because the stolen items spilled out of her car as she pulled out of the supermarket parking lot.
Her attorney, Jim Rosenberger, asked the judge yesterday to reduce the sentence even further.
He made some of the same arguments in a civil lawsuit filed last month against the company, alleging the employees' actions were aggressive and reckless and partly to blame for the fatal crash.
Rosenberger said the manager and the two teenage clerks who confronted Durrett in the parking lot got a good look at her and knew that a young child was in the front seat. Nonetheless, the manager ordered the clerks to chase Durrett in one of their cars.
About a mile away, while both cars were stopped at a red light, one of the clerks got out, yelled at Durrett and placed his foot on her bumper.
At that point, Rosenberger argues, the clerk could have used his cellphone and called police. Instead, he said, the two continued to speed after Durrett for 2-1/2 miles before she lost control and crashed.
State law allows store employees to use a "reasonable amount of force" to stop and detain shoplifters while on company premises.
Rosenberger said yesterday the actions fell into the legal category of coercion or threat.
"My gut reaction is 'How dare she?' " said prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro in response to Rosenberger's defense. "To accept the defense's theory, you have to say people can go out and commit crimes and then choose whether they are responsible or not.
"On the other hand, I feel sympathy; I can't imagine a worse punishment for one's wrongful conduct than causing the death of your own child."
Knight didn't accept the argument, either. He said Durrett had several chances to alter the course of events, starting with the theft.
"Had you not shoplifted, your daughter would be alive and you wouldn't be here," Knight said.
Barbara Smith, Durrett's mother, told the judge: "I know she loved (Ladawna) as much as any mother loved a child. She wouldn't have harmed Ladawna in any way."
Smith conceded Durrett had made some poor decisions in her life, including marrying a man who was — and still is — in prison and conceiving Ladawna with him during a visit.
Durrett, who is on probation for another shoplifting incident less than two years ago, said little during yesterday's sentencing. But Knight read a letter she had written to the court, which said, "I'm ashamed and I have learned my lesson. I have been punished. ... I killed my daughter."
Knight agreed and then told her: "The most difficult task that you have now is forgiving yourself."
Michael Ko can be reached at 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com.