Thread: Immigrant Driver Gets 12.5 Years in Fatal Bus Crash (update)

Was going to piggyback this article to another thread but we have so many I decided to post separately.
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Immigrant Driver Gets 12.5 Years in Fatal Bus Crash
Wednesday, October 08, 2008


MARSHALL, Minn. —

A judge on Wednesday ordered a 12 1/2-year prison sentence for the woman convicted of four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in a school bus crash near Cottonwood.

In sentencing Olga Marina Franco Del Cid, Lyon County District Judge David Peterson said the families of the Lakeview School children who were injured or killed in the Feb. 19 crash will continue to struggle.

"Franco's sentence will end. For those parents dealing with injuries, it's a daily struggle. For the parents dealing with lost children, it's a lifetime of could-have-beens and might-have-beens that never will be," Peterson said.

The families of the four children who were killed — Jesse Javens, 13; his brother, Hunter Javens, 9; Emilee Olson, 9; and Reed Stevens, 12 — all spoke during the hearing, which lasted more than two hours. The judge also heard from a family whose children were among the 14 people injured.

Through an interpreter, Franco also made a statement, asking for forgiveness for using someone else's identity. She also asked for forgiveness for the crash, but still denied being the driver. Franco said that she's going through some of the same feelings as the victim's families, because she isn't able to be with her family.

Franco's defense had tried to argue that her boyfriend was driving the van, and that he fled after the crash. He has not been seen since.

But prosecutors argued during her trial that Franco had to be extricated from the driver's seat of the minivan, which hit the school bus after barreling through a stop sign.

In August, a jury convicted Franco of all 24 counts against her.

Franco still has the right to appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,434621,00.html

Franco said that she's going through some of the same feelings as the victim's families, because she isn't able to be with her family.

SO? If she had stayed in her country, she'd still be with her family and those kids would still be alive!

She's not the victim here, she is the criminal. NO SYMPATHY!

12 1/2 years for 4 young lives??? That's the travesty, she should have gotten at least 40 years!

Seems like an awfully light sentence.

Being an illegal ought to double or triple the sentence.

12.5 years/4 lives = 3.125 years/life, this is ridiculous.

With credit for good behavior in prison, she will serve, maybe, 4 years.

One year for each precious life. Our government has done this to us.

I also found this article on MSN, but it was on the crime page, NOT the race and ethnicity page.

It's funny, the race and ethnicity page headlined the "SC workers TORN from families" story, but they stick this story in a completely different area.

Does that make sense? The kids killed in the bus crash were quite literally torn from their families. Don't these stories belong in the same news section, if only for comparison?

OH yes, the driver of the van wasn't listed as an illegal immigrant. How convenient and sensitive for the author to conveniently omit such an important fact so the story can be stuck somewhere in the back of the news while "SC families torn apart" takes up the headlines...

Originally Posted by jonhaloi

Seems like an awfully light sentence.

Being an illegal ought to double or triple the sentence.

12.5 years/4 lives = 3.125 years/life, this is ridiculous.

I absolutely agree Jonhaloi! Her illegal status should have been considered an aggravating circumstance, which would have added time to the original sentence.

[img]http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/640*472/FRANCO1009-1franco1009.jpg[/img]

Olga Franco arrived at Lyon County Courthouse for her sentencing hearing on Wednesday. A jury convicted her of criminal vehicular homicide for a collision that killed four children on a school bus in Cottonwood, Minn.

Franco said that she's going through some of the same feelings as the victim's families, because she isn't able to be with her family.

How dare she make this remark. The families of the victims WILL NEVER see their children again. Being unable to visit with family is no comparison to losing family members.

THESE DEATHS WOULD HAVE NEVER OCCURED IF THIS ILLEGAL ALIEN WASNT IN OUR COUNTRY.

[img]http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/640*471/2bus0220.jpg[/img]

[color=darkblue][b]The bus tipped onto a pickup truck; another vehicle appeared to have hit the bus from behind, according to eyewitness accounts. Before rescue crews arrived, drivers tried to help. “Everyone worked frantically to get the kids off that bus,â€

[img]http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/640*423/1bus022008.jpg[/img]

Rescue workers are seen at the site of a bus crash Tuesday near Cottonwood, Minn.


http://www.startribune.com/15776642.html