Woman gets 30 years for deliberate car wreck that killed 2

A Lucas County judge sentenced an East Toledo woman who admitted to ramming her car into another in South Toledo, killing two of the other car’s occupants and injuring a third, to 30 years in prison Thursday.

Judge Lori Olender said before sentencing Jasmine Pitts, 34, of the 400 block of Clark Street, that while the word “accident” commonly applies to all manner of traffic crashes, “this was not an accident by any means.”

It may not have been Pitts’ intent to kill the victims, Judge Olender said, but the collision itself was deliberate — investigators estimated an impact speed of 80 mph.

“There’s really not any words because this is so terrible,” the judge later said before remarking that resolving the case with a plea relieved the victims’ families from having to go through a trial and watching a video recording of the collision.

Donta Marshall, 25, and Jasmine Gresham, 30, were killed and Makala Jackson, 24, was injured when Pitts’ car struck theirs and forced it into a utility pole near South Avenue and Cordova Street in South Toledo around 5 a.m. on Feb. 25. Toledo police said Pitts was dating Ms. Gresham at the time and the two were in an argument at the time of the crash.

Pitts, who had been indicted for aggravated vehicular homicide, pleaded guilty July 2 to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and single counts of felonious assault and failure to stop after an accident.

Judge Olender sentenced her to consecutive terms of 11 years for the two manslaughter counts, and she is subject to an additional 5½ years if she misbehaves in prison. The judge also gave her four years for the felonious assault count and two years for fleeing the scene, consecutive to the longer manslaughter terms.