BY NANCY DRURY DUNCAN, Eastern Shore Post —
An Oak Hall woman convicted of careless driving in the death of a mother and the serious injury of her boyfriend and 7-year-old child will spend three months in jail.
Jessica Greenley Waterfield, 37, of Oak Hall, wept as she was led to jail from the courtroom after Circuit Judge Tanya Bullock refused a request from defense attorney Thomas Northam that her incarceration be delayed.
“She should have been prepared,” the judge said in Accomack Circuit Court.
At sentencing, Northam said Waterfield had not driven since the day of the crash — April 12, 2023.
Before hearing her sentence, Waterfield said she prayed for the family.
“It will be with me forever,” she said.
Bullock told Waterfield she should have stopped the car to tend to the child. She sentenced Waterfield to 12 months in jail and suspended nine months.
Waterfield pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide in a March jury trial and was found guilty of the lesser offense of misdemeanor careless driving.
Erika Bailey, 27, her boyfriend, Duane Lee Turner, and their 7-year-old daughter were visiting Turner’s mother on Nock’s Landing Road when they decided to walk along the road with their child as she rode her bicycle, Turner said.
The family was hit by Waterfield’s white 2021 Honda Pilot sport-utility vehicle.
Waterfield testified at trial that she was driving east toward Atlantic Road at about 6 p.m. that day to have dinner with her parents.
She said her 3-year-old daughter, who had been having problems with choking, was asleep and began coughing.
Waterfield said her car had a camera to monitor the child in her car seat, but she could not see her because of the glare from the setting sun.
She said she reached back in an attempt to straighten the child’s head to aid her breathing but could not reach her.
“I heard the front end of my car hit something. I did not know what it was,” she said at trial.
Bailey was thrown across Nock’s Landing Road and died upon impact.
Turner said he attempted to help her.
“She never responded,” Turner said, weeping while on the witness stand telling the story of that day at Waterfield’s trial.
Turner and the child were seriously injured and taken to the hospital. Evidence presented was that the car’s recording system showed the car was traveling between 55 and 57 miles per hour when she struck them and that the car’s brake was never engaged. The speed limit at that location is 50 mph.
Testimony from an officer investigating the accident was that Waterfield was not impaired by drugs or alcohol or using her cellphone.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan described the case as “tragic for the victim’s family and the defendant and her family”, but said, “she was going too fast and failed to pay attention.”
