A Long Beach family is frustrated that an admitted drunk driver who caused a deadly crash is expected to serve only a short time behind bars.
The driver, 31-year-old Julie Haq, pleaded no contest last month to one count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for slamming into the car of 60-year-old Rodger Watkins on the rainy night of Feb. 20. Prosecutors said she was going nearly 90 mph.
In an apology she wrote to Watkins’ family, Haq said she and a friend split two bottles of wine before she got behind the wheel.
“I am sure Mr. Watkins is in your thoughts every day, as he is in mine,” she said in part. “I see him in every stranger I encounter, feeling a hollow in my heart, knowing that I could have endangered anyone that night. I will carry the weight of this loss with me every day.”
Haq’s no-contest plea means the judge on the case could sentence her to 4, 6 or 10 years in prison, but Watkins’ daughter, Mariela Salgado, said prosecutors have said she’ll likely receive the lower end of that range at a hearing on Dec. 13. Any prison time she receives will also be reduced by the time she has already spent on house arrest since she turned herself in to face charges on May 1. If she is granted good behavior credit, that could further reduce prison time and result in her being released after less than two years behind bars, according to Salgado.