Schuster was found guilty last month of aggravated vehicular homicide for Rooks' death. The Cincinnati woman was also found guilty of three counts of aggravated vehicular assault and OVI for injuring three others.
“Sixteen years,” Shannon Dethlefs, Amber’s mother, said just after the sentencing. “Am I OK with it? No, because in 16 years my daughter won’t be back either. We really need to come together as a community and make the laws harsher.”
Schuster had faced a total of 23 years in prison.
Within the past 10 years, laws concerning operating a vehicle under the influence have changed to include drugs as well as alcohol. Ohio’s legal blood alcohol level has been lowered and mandatory jail sentences and licenses suspensions have been imposed. Repeat offenders can also be charged with a felony and sent to prison.
“If I could turn back time, or trade places with Amber, I would in a heartbeat,” Schuster said in almost a whisper while crying during the sentencing hearing. She added that she couldn’t imagine the pain the families were going through, and several of them spoke in court in an attempt to relay what that pain was like.
Dethlefs stood just feet away from Schuster with Amber’s 9-year-old son, Dylan. The boy reached under his glasses to wipe away tears as his grandmother spoke.
“This little guy, all he wants is his mom back,” Dethlefs said. “His world is shattered.”
She held up a picture of her daughter after the crash, lying in a hospital bed under a maze of tubes and life support machines.
“A 24-year-old legally brain dead for something she didn’t do. All she did was go to work,” Dethlefs said, adding that her daughter’s donated organs saved six lives.
The young boy answered the judge’s questions through sobs as he stood in the packed courtroom.
“Be inspired by your mother’s life,” Judge Keith Spaeth told the boy. “And don’t let what has happened to your mom and your family limit you. I wish you the very best. You are a fine looking young man. I know your mother would be proud of you.”
Before sentencing, defense attorney Lawrence Hawkins III told the judge that Schuster, a graduate of Oak Hills High School with no prior criminal record, did not willingly take drugs before driving and asked that her sentence be one of “mercy and grace.”
At trial, Schuster took the stand in her own defense telling the jury she was drugged before the crash with pills dissolved in orange juice by a man who befriended her a year ago while she was working at a strip club in Dayton.
Schuster said she had no recollection of the crash or anything after she met Kevin Bowman, of Sydney, that afternoon and he gave her a drink.
But the jury believed Bowman’s version of what happened before the crash.
Bowman said he met with Schuster the day of the crash at a West Chester Twp. park. They smoked marijuana and ate fast food, but he said he did not drug her.
“This has been one of the most difficult sentencing hearings I can remember sitting through,” Spaeth said.
“Miss Rooks has died, Mr. Oliphant is a shell of his former self, Miss McCants has significant injuries. So all around this is a terribly tragic case,” he said, speaking of the two other Duke Energy subcontractors injured in the crash.
RELATED: Utility workers give emotional testimony
He added he believes Schuster would change the events of the crash if she could, “but you can’t.”
Spaeth said rarely does he have anyone before him for sentencing without a criminal record
After sentencing Schuster to 16 years in prison, Spaeth denied her attorney’s request of a bond while the case was appealed.
Before she was led from the courtroom, Spaeth told Schuster: “I wish you the best. Serve your time and recover.”
Schuster’s family and Hawkins declined to comment after the sentencing.
About the Author
