An Afton woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in connection with a January 2016 crash in Union County that killed one woman.
Sixty-two-year-old Donna Jo Spare of Afton pleaded guilty to the charge of vehicular homicide in February. The accident happened in mid-January of last year, on Highway 34 about three miles east of Creston. Investigators say Spare was drunk when the car she was driving crossed the center line and crashed head-on into another car, killing another woman.
Union County Attorney Tim Kenyon says driving while drunk is a risk no one should take.
“I would compare it to, as one judge has said, it’s like shooting a loaded fire arm into a crowd of people,” Kenyon says. “The likelihood that someone will die or be injured is substantial.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Spare has been ordered by the judge to pay $150,000 to the estate of Deanne Hoffman.
“As far as justice being served, I believe it has been,” Kenyon says.
Hoffman was 49 when she was killed in the crash. She was married, with two adult sons, and worked as a certified nurses aide.
(Reporting by Jordan Armstrong, KSIB, Creston)