Aimee Michael Receives 36-Year Prison Sentence in Easter Crash

ATLANTA - Robert Michael stepped to the middle of the courtroom, looked left and saw his daughter and wife in shackles, awaiting a prison sentence for their part in the Easter Sunday wreck that killed five. Then he looked right, to the relatives of the victims who were sniffing back tears along with the rest of the room.

"If I was there, all this would never have taken place," he said. "But I wasn't. So I carry this heavy burden myself."

Aimee Michael was sentenced Thursday to 36 years in prison and another 14 years probation after she was convicted of causing the April 2009 crash and then speeding away. Her mother, Sheila Michael, was sentenced to eight years in prison for helping her daughter cover-up the accident -- far more time than prosecutors requested.

"The one thing I couldn't get out of my mind is that you left the scene of the crime," Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams told Aimee Michael. "And then you followed a course of conduct designed to cover up what happened."

Michael, 24, borrowed her parents' BMW to pick up vanilla ice cream on the day of the crash. As she was driving on a busy four-lane road in south Atlanta, her car switched lanes and slammed into a Mercedes carrying Robert and Delisia Carter, their newbo son, Ethan, and Delisia's 9-year-old daughter, Kayla.

Both vehicles were forced into oncoming traffic, colliding with the Volkswagen Beetle carrying Tracie Johnson and her six-year-old daughter Morgan.

All four passengers in the Carters' vehicle were killed in the fiery crash. In the Volkswagen, Morgan Johnson was killed. Morgan's mother, Tracie, survived but suffered a broken hip, collarbone and legs.

Frustrated authorities spent almost two weeks searching in vain for the driver of the BMW that witnesses said triggered the wreck. Then they got a tip from a neighbor who noticed Michael acting suspiciously. Investigators who arrested her soon discovered she paid a mechanic to fix the beat-up vehicle to hide the evidence.

Her mother, a 52-year-old former school teacher, pleaded guilty before the trial started to two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering the apprehension of a criminal for working with her daughter in the cover-up. But Aimee rejected a plea deal of 50 years in prison and went to trial, and her attoeys adopted an unusual strategy.

Defense attoey Scott Smith told jurors to find his client guilty of hit-and-run and tampering with evidence. But he told them to acquit her of vehicular homicide charges that carried more prison time, pointing to tire tracks and debris he said indicated the car was sideswiped by another vehicle.

Prosecutors countered that evidence from the wreckage and testimony from eyewitnesses were enough to prove Michael caused the wreck. But they contended the most damaging evidence against Michael was what she did after the wreck: She left the fiery debris in her rear view mirror and worked with her mother to conceal her role.

"I don't believe this defendant has shown any remorse, save that for herself," said Tanya Miller, a Fulton County prosecutor, who urged the judge to sentence Michael to 50 years behind bars and her mother to three years. "The tears she has shed have been shed for herself."

Aimee Michael's lawyers tried to depict her softer side during the hearing. Her pastor, Priscilla Moody, told the judge how she "cried a river of tears" each Sunday and tued down a birthday cake last year because she "felt she wasn't worthy of being celebrated."

Then Aimee Michael spoke publicly for the first time since the accident, approaching the podium as tears dripped down her cheeks.

"I want to say I am wrong," she said, her voice trembling. "I have wronged three families and for that I am sorry."

Sheila Michael's attoey brought up the question that has surrounded this trial since it began two weeks ago: Would Aimee or her mother still be facing such serious charges if either had tued themselves in after the accident?

"What Sheila Michael did was driven by fear and attempt to protect her child," said Renee Rockwell. "It was the worst move she could have made. If Aimee Michael had gone back to the scene, we would be talking about six to 12 months at most."

The judge said she has asked herself the same question, but after days of prayer she couldn't find a reason to give either the mother or her daughter a more lenient sentence.

"As a mother, you are required to do the right thing," said Adams, who choked up several times during the hearing. "And when your daughter came to you at a time when she needed you most -- she needed her mother -- you failed her."

Robert Michael, meanwhile, was left to wonder what would have happened if he wasn't working overseas at the time of the crash.

"I let you down because I needed to be here. I'm sorry that this happened and I just wish we could start all over again."

He tued to his wife of 28 years and his daughter. They locked eyes for a few silent seconds. He sighed, and then tued

back to the judge.

"But still, I have to remember the victims," he said. "They have lost more."