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Ashley Bray (28) was jailed for over a year after she drove drunk and killed Chez Hopkins (30) when she crashed their vehicle
Filed Under:
Alcohol-Related Automobile Accident
Published: Jan 21, 2009 @ 3:39 PM
Ashley Bray (28)
Date:
Mar 21, 2008
Convicted Of:
Involuntary Manslaughter & DUI
Location:
Highland Springs, VA
URL:
view their profile
Chez Hopkins (30)
Date:
Mar 21, 2008
Cause of Death:
Alcohol Related Auto Accident
Location:
Highland Springs, VA
URL:
view their profile
Alcohol and a high-speed crash that ended the life of her longtime friend will cost Ashley Bray more than a year in prison.
But Bray, 28, also will suffer a lifelong brain injury and loss of memory of the March 21 crash last year on North Airport Drive near Old Hanover Road.
The early-morning crash left Bray and 30-year-old Chez C. Hopkins pinned in her 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Hopkins was dead.
"Ms. Bray will have to live the rest of her life with the knowledge that she took the life of a dear, dear friend," Stephen Goodwin, her lawyer, told Circuit Judge L.A. Harris Jr. today.
But Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Michael S. Huberman described the Highland Springs woman as being "in a drunken stupor" in March despite having declared herself the designated driver for the evening.
The two had been drinking at a karaoke night at a Mechanicsville restaurant. Bray, Huberman said, had a blood alcohol level that was more than twice the legal limit.
In a courtroom filled with relatives of both defendant and victim, Harris ordered Bray to serve one year on an involuntary manslaughter conviction and four months for driving under the influence. He revoked her license and ordered her not to drink alcohol.
"Probably no one feels worse than Ms. Bray does," the judge said, describing Hopkins as "a very, very good person" who died under "a tragic, tragic circumstance." Hopkins worked for Comcast and lived in Fredericksburg.
Bray, sobbing on the witness stand, simply expressed her sorrow. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of him," she said. "I want him back. All I can say is what I can't say enough: 'I'm sorry.' "
Related Article(s):
Driver gets 1 year, 4 months in DUI fatality
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