Key West woman has been sentenced to 32 years

Key West woman has been sentenced to 32 years

A Key West woman has been sentenced to 32 years in state prison for running over and killing another woman three years ago, plus attempting to run over two other people.

April Dawn Thomason, 46, expressed remorse for the death of Stephanie Collins, 49, but Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia told her at sentencing November 5 that “you created this situation.”

Following prison, Thomason will be on probation for 10 years.

A six-person jury convicted Thomason on September 26 of one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of attempted manslaughter, one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving death and one count of assault.

Garcia sentenced her to 25 years for the vehicular homicide, five years for one of the attempted manslaughter counts and two years for the other attempted manslaughter. The terms will run consecutively. The leaving-the-scene conviction was set aside for sentencing purposes. Thomason was given 60 days in the county jail for the assault, with credit for time served.

“Her actions and inactions caused everything that horrible night,” said Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne, who represented the state along with Assistant State Attorney Christy Spottswood.

Thomason ran down Collins, a dental hygienist, on September 16, 2015, on South Roosevelt Boulevard. Collins died that night at Lower Keys Medical Center from what the attending medical examiner called “blunt force injuries.”

Thomason’s attorneys claimed she was temporarily insane due to her withdrawal from Xanax but the prosecution successfully argued she knew she was behind the wheel and knew what she was doing the night of the tragedy.

At sentencing, Thomason addressed Garcia for about 10 minutes and talked about what she said was a childhood filled with abuse that later caused her to become a drug user. It was the first time she testified in the case; she did not take the stand at trial.

Garcia responded by saying she “had years to straighten herself out” but didn’t. “Your darkest moments pale in comparison” to the damage she’s caused Collins’ family and friends, the other victims and those who witnessed the crash and the aftermath, the judge said.

Of seeing his friend Collins injured and bloodied on the pavement after Thomason ran her over with a Mercedes, Ian McNabb told Thomason, “I’m going to have to live with this for the rest of my life.”

In convicting Thomason of the two counts of attempted manslaughter, the jury found that Thomason did “intentionally commit” acts “which would have resulted in the [deaths of McNab and Jorge Canedo] by driving her automobile, a deadly weapon, on the sidewalk and/or roadway towards and nearly striking” them, which “created a well-founded fear that violence was about to take place” but that was interrupted or prevented.

McNab and Collins were walking west on the South Roosevelt Boulevard sidewalk near the mile marker 1 sign when Thomason jumped the curb, kept driving and ran Collins over.

Canedo told police he was riding his bicycle west on the sidewalk when he saw the Mercedes jump the sidewalk and strike Collins, then head toward him. He changed direction to avoid the car, “but the driver again turned towards him,” Key West Police traffic homicide investigator Kuniko Keohane wrote in a report. Canedo turned quickly to avoid impact as the car left the sidewalk and entered the travel lane heading outbound of the city.

The conviction for assault is for Thomason aiming her car toward Walter Fraddisio Jr. He had gone for a run when he saw the Mercedes strike Collins, then come toward him. The car nearly struck him as it went back on the road.

After striking Collins and nearly striking the others, Thomason kept driving and stopped only when a car in front of her stopped to block her.

Thomas’ lead defense attorney, Kevin McCarthy, asked Garcia for a downward departure in sentencing (five years in prison followed by probation), citing her childhood and lack of criminal history. He called Collins’ death a “tragic, tragic mistake.”

Thomason told Collins’ mother, Erica Gail Clark, who attended the sentencing via telephone, “I’m so sorry for taking your precious daughter away.”

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