The 87-year-old retired schoolteacher who was crossing the street in a crosswalk near her home was struck and killed by a public bus driver in Ohio who had a suspended license. The driver will not go to jail, but he will be subject to a lawsuit that claims he shouldn’t have been driving.
According to online court documents, Deon Willis, 47, was sentenced by Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Samantha Silverstein on Thursday to five years of probation, one thousand hours of community service, and a five-year suspension of his driver’s license in connection with the death of Beverly Kinney. In July, he entered a guilty plea to a charge of vehicular homicide.
“In reading about Ms. Kinney, she volunteered at several local organizations that are constantly writing to this court that they need community service hours,” said Silverstein, local ABC affiliate WCPO reported. “And I know this seems like a very light sanction, but I want you to do this and think of her and think of her family every time you work one of those hours … So, I want you to do these hours and think about her every single time you do it, and give back to the community in the way that she did.”
