She laughs and laughs – while Stephanie Melgoza just killed two people while drunk!
The recordings come from a bodycam video that was shown in the trial against the 24-year-old. The Tazewell County (Illinois) court sentenced Melgoza to 14 years in prison – well below the demands of the relatives of Andrea Rosewicz († 43) and Paul Prowant († 55). They wanted to see the ex-student behind bars twice as long.
The sister of the deceased said to the defendant: “There are no words that can even come close to causing you the pain you have caused our families. The scale is unimaginable.”
2.4 per thousand at the time of the accident
Melgoza danced at the police station after her arrest
Background to the relatively mild sentence for Melgoza: Judge Tim Cusack decided against a deterrent punishment and for the rehabilitation of the fully confessed defendants. She said in tears at the trial: “I’m so sorry for everything. I haven’t drunk anything since that day. I have no intention of ever drinking again.”
At the hearing, it came out that Stephanie Melgoza had around 2.4 per thousand alcohol in her blood at the time of the accident. The bodycam video shows how the American can hardly follow the police officer’s instructions. “I told you it was going to be hard,” she says, laughing. And: “I’d rather do the walking test.”
Drunk driver danced in the police station
The crashed car that Stephanie Melgoza used to kill two people
According to an official, Melgoza, who claims to have drunk only three vodkas, danced and sang for minutes at the station. The drunk then asked if she could get her car back so that she could drive to the university on time. The policeman’s response: “You’re going to jail, you killed two people last night. I don’t think you understand that.”
The horror crash happened on April 11 last year in front of the “Full Thottle” bar in East Peoria (Illinois).