Isley
A Morgantown woman was sentenced this week for her role in a drunk driving crash that killed a Bargersville man.
Tina M. Isley, 49, was sentenced to six years on a charge of operating while intoxicated causing death, a Level 4 felony, for her role in a Jan. 11, 2020 crash that killed Robert T. Shirley.
Isley’s sentence includes two years of incarceration and four years of probation, with credit for one day of jail time previously served. She also must pay a fee for a traffic offense and more than $6,200 in restitution to Shirley’s immediate family.
Her license was also suspended for 910 days.
Shirley was pronounced dead at the scene after Isley struck his pickup truck head-on. He was heading to work in Indianapolis, according to a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office news release.
Deputies said Isley was traveling west on Division Road near State Road 135 when she crossed the center line and struck Shirley, who was eastbound. Isley was driving a Jeep Wrangler, according to court documents filed in Johnson County Circuit Court.
A blood test showed her blood alcohol content immediately following the accident was .144%, court documents say. The legal limit to drive is .08%.
A deputy interviewed Isley at an Indianapolis hospital where she was treated for a broken ankle. She said a friend was driving her vehicle and dropped off other friends, but she began driving once everyone had been dropped off, court documents say.
She said she had five beers, and her last drink was about 30 minutes before the accident, according to court documents.
The case was bogged down in an appeal process for over a year, which contributed to how long the case took to wrap up. The appeal was for a motion to suppress the blood draw. Isley’s legal team argued she did not properly consent to the blood draw, however, the prosecutor’s office successfully argued Isley was alert enough to know what she was agreeing to do, court records show.
The sentence was issued on Monday and a plea agreement for the case was filed in November. Though the sentence came about following a plea agreement, this is the advisory sentence for this charge, said Lance Hamner, Johnson County prosecutor.
The charge also carries no mandatory minimum jail time, whereas the agreement includes two years of it.
When asked about the length of the sentence, Hamner said he believes a sentence for this charge should carry both a higher penalty and mandatory jail time. However, as long as operating while intoxicated causing death remains a Level 4 felony under Indiana law, this sentence is what prosecutors are stuck with.
Though aggravating factors could have lengthened the sentence, they were not present in this case.
