Eye on the Court: Acquittal in Hit and Run Case Does Not Remove Tragedy, Loss

On June 30, outside a Woodland 7-Eleven store, there was a confrontation between 28-year-old Kristal Sutton and 58-year-old Alisa Horner, where Ms. Sutton ultimately ran over Ms. Horner and fled the scene.  A few days later, Ms. Horner would die and Ms. Sutton would be taken into custody.

Outraged at what they perceived to be relatively light charges of a felony hit and run resulting in death, rather than a vehicular homicide or murder, the family of Ms. Horner would come to the Vanguard Court Watch Council Meeting in Woodland in late July, that was attended by both Sheriff Ed Prieto and Woodland Police Chief Dan Bellini.

It was a puzzling case for the Vanguard because most of the time we are dealing with overcharging, not undercharging.  Something was not adding up.

We had seen ten seconds of inattentiveness lead to a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter and a conviction of vehicular manslaughter.  We had seen drunk driving cases result in second degree murder charges.

Here the family was alleging a woman had intentionally run over their mother and left the scene, and the woman was facing relatively minor charges.

What I would learn from watching the preliminary hearing is that the district attorney’s office largely had the charges correct.  The facts supported a charge of felony hit and run.  In addition to that, we felt it was probably only a 50-50 case.  The defense had a credible case to make, that she acted as a reasonable person would have given the circumstances, and a jury may have found her not guilty.

That’s exactly what happened last week.

The facts that came out last week mirrored the facts that came out in August during the preliminary hearing.  Ms. Horner was intoxicated and confronted Ms. Sutton outside of the convenience store.  She repeatedly prevented Ms. Sutton from shutting her car door, she would stick her head in Ms. Sutton’s open window and at one point actually slapped her in the face.

The confrontation continued as Ms. Sutton attempted to leave.  As she backed up, Ms. Horner continued to follow and Ms. Sutton was trying to create space.  The officer testified that on the video it looked like she was moving 5 mph or less.  At some point Ms. Horner was no longer in view of the video.  However, others testified that she had attempted to jump in front of the car as it went into drive.

One witness said Ms. Horner fell backward upon impact.  The officer and the other witnesses who spoke to officers indicated that it looked like she was going over a speed bump.

What happened next is somewhat disputed.  It seems there were a few witnesses and they yelled at Ms. Sutton to stop.  She got out of the vehicle, saw the victim.  She yelled to the crowd that the lady had attacked her and then according to one witness said, “F- everyone,” and left the scene.

She would head to her home, which was apparently was only a quarter of a mile away.  An officer was dispatched based on the license plate, and went to the residence and talked with her until other officers arrived.

She had phoned her husband and told him what had happened.  He told her to stay put, that he would be right there and they’d figure out what to do.

By the time he arrived at their home, the officers were already with her and arresting her, charging her with leaving the scene of an accident.

There are two reasons given as to why she left the scene.  She told officers that she “might have hit her” and that she was afraid to call the police because she had no insurance and did not want her vehicle towed.

She also told officers that she was afraid of the lady who was acting erratically and that she was unsure who was in the crowd of people that had gathered around her following the accident.

The case against Ms. Sutton came down to why she left the scene.

The defense naturally focused on the aggression of Ms. Horner and the confrontation by a group of people.  It was also noted that the entire scene occurred in about a 15-minute period from the time the accident occurred until Ms. Sutton was arrested.

The prosecution focused on the insurance explanation for fleeing the scene.

As I said, it was about a 50-50 case and, unfortunately, the jury left immediately after rendering their verdict, so we do not have insight into their rationale.

The truth is probably that both fear of consequences and fear of personal safety played a role in the decision by Ms. Sutton to leave.

However, there is another point that needs to be made here and it gets lost in legal battles.  Ms. Horner clearly behaved inappropriately, both in being intoxicated and in aggressively panhandling.  She perhaps committed an assault and her conduct put her own personal safety at risk.  I’m sure that conduct and her long history of such confrontations played a role with the jury in what was a close call.

But, more importantly, before the heated arguments in and out of court, we also saw a glimpse of the humanity of Kristal Sutton.

Officer Matt Gray testified that he had visited Ms. Sutton in jail.  When the officer first arrived, Ms. Sutton asked about the victim’s condition.  Offficer Gray said he told her he needed information first.  At the end of the interview, she inquired again, and at that point he informed her that Ms. Horner had passed away.  Ms. Sutton, he said, broke down sobbing and exclaiming how sorry she was.

This was a tragedy.  Nothing about this court verdict will ever change this tragedy.  Ms. Sutton will have to live with this for the rest of her life.  Ms. Horner’s family is now deprived of her presence in their lives.

Everyone in this case is hurting and the court outcome may be a small relief to Ms. Sutton, but moving on will undoubtedly be difficult.  She is going to play this scenario through for some time to come, wondering what she could have done differently.

In the end, things may have gone too far, feelings cut too deep, but this is precisely a case in which a VORP (Victim Offender Reconciliation Program), a restorative justice process, might be able to help in the healing process.

—David M. Greenwald reporting