Judge sentences driver for second serious crash caused while under the influence

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A woman collapsed in a Hamilton County courtroom after being sentenced to prison for a car crash.

Michelle Lake pleaded for mercy. While Judge Patrick Dinkelacker said he sympathized, he showed Lake none, calling her a ticking time bomb.

"I'm so very sorry for what happened,” said Lake during sentencing. “I wish so badly I could take that day back."

But the 35-year-old mother of three cannot take back the 2018 crash that severely injured two people. It was Thursday, Dec. 6 at about 9:30 a.m., when Lake was driving and crossed the center line, hitting a car driven by Jody Cox.

"I still have issues; I still have pain,” said Cox during the sentencing. “I still can't walk right. I still have emotional issues. I still see that constantly and it affects me a great deal."

"I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry," said Lake to Cox.

Another adult passenger and Cox's 2-year-old were in the car. Luckily, the 2-year-old wasn't hurt, but the judge reminded Lake that investigators determined cocaine, fentanyl and methadone were in her system at the time of the crash.

"These demons haunt me every day,” said Lake. “And the night before the accident, these demons took advantage of the weak state of mind I was in. The decisions that followed will haunt me and the victim's family and my family forever."

But it wasn't necessarily this accident alone on which the prosecutor based his sentencing recommendation of 10 years.

"She's already been to prison twice,” said the prosecuting attorney. “She had another crash frighteningly similar to this. Killed a person and only did two years and she did a burglary that she didn't do very long on."

In the end, Dinkelacker gave the maximum sentence -- 10 years for one count of vehicular assault and one count of aggravated vehicular assault, plus a lifetime driver's license suspension.

As the judge read her sentence, Lake’s knees buckled and she sobbed as she went to the ground. As she was led from the courtroom to begin her sentence, her husband called after her, saying, “I love you” amidst Lake sobbing, “Oh my God; oh my God.”

In that 2006 crash referenced by the prosecutor, it was Lake's passenger who died. Again, she had only served two years for that conviction.

In delivering the sentence, the judge said he recognizes Lake was remorseful, but he needs to look out for the safety of the community.

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