Driver with man on windshield says she panicked

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Driver with man on windshield says she panicked

By LINDA DEUTSCH

Jan 29, 2014 7:51 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/driver-man-windshield-says-she-panicked-005110231.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) A woman who drove 2 miles through a Los Angeles suburb with a dying man on her windshield says she can't remember hitting him.

Sherry Lynn Wilkins testified Wednesday that he seemed to fly onto her car in the 2012 incident in Torrance, but the events were a surreal blur.

Prosecutors say 31-year-old Phillip Moreno was struck so hard that he flipped onto Wilkins' car and punched a hole in the windshield.

"It was a flash, "Wilkins said. "I pretty much felt him landing on my window. To me, it felt like he came from the sky."

Asked by her attorney how she felt in that moment, she said, "Very confused, like it wasn't real. It took me a while to figure out there was a body on the windshield."

"I didn't feel like I had hit him with my car," she said. "I felt like he fell into my windshield from up high."

Wilkins said she panicked and kept driving until other motorists told her to pull over.

"I was very scared," she said. "I kind of froze."

Wilkins, a former addict who became a drug and alcohol counselor, wept and said she'd been drinking that night but wasn't drunk. She said she had been "self-medicating" while waiting for knee-replacement surgery and had consumed three airplane-size bottles of vodka and a can of Budweiser beer and Clamato before starting to drive.

Prosecutors say her blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit.

Under questioning by her lawyer, Nan Whitfield, the 52-year-old defendant told jurors her story of addiction, which began when she was in a car accident at the age of 15 and suffered a broken back and shattered bones in her ankles and legs.

Wilkins said she became addicted to pain killers and then heroin.

"When did you begin to use heroin?" asked Whitfield.

"When it became cheaper than going to the doctor," she said.

Wilkins acknowledged having served time for residential burglaries over the years, said she kicked the heroin habit with the help of methadone and more recently had been using medical marijuana. She told of obtaining a degree in addiction counseling and going to work at a treatment center.

"Were you happy in November of 2012?" asked Whitfield.

"For the first time I was," she whispered and began to cry.

Superior Court Judge Henry Hall cut off further exploration of her personal history. Wilkins is being brought to the courtroom in a wheel chair.

She was leaving the treatment center on the night of Nov. 24, 2012, when the crash occurred.

Wilkins has pleaded not guilty to murder, DUI and hit-and-run.

On cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney John Harlan asked if Wilkins thought that night she should call her husband to pick her up since she had been drinking.

"No," she said. "I wasn't drunk."

Asked what she was thinking, Wilkins said, "I was thinking I'd better hurry up and get home before the effects hit me."

Asked about her lack of response afterward, she said, "I was freaking out. It was not like I knew what was happening ... I still can't believe what happened."

Attorneys were scheduled to present final arguments Thursday.

Priceless. How in the halibut do you not notice someone on your windshield!

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Lock her sorry excuse riddled butt up..Drunkard.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Everyone please join me in expressing moral outrage at the driver

She is white

You know what is coming if we don't get 5 pages out of this.

[lostinblue 1,989]

We need to limit the use of assault cars.

[GandD 5,966]

We need to limit the use of assault cars.

Assault cars, nice.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

We need to limit the use of assault cars.

[luckytxn 2,264]

That had to be some good stuff she smoked.

[Danno 1,228]

Everyone please join me in expressing moral outrage at the driver

She is white

You know what is coming if we don't get 5 pages out of this.

I was really really outraged.... until I learned she was white.

When white folks do this stuff, there must be a good explanation.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Everyone please join me in expressing moral outrage at the driver

She is white

You know what is coming if we don't get 5 pages out of this.

Of course, because we know you're a bastion of outrage no matter what the skin color

[GandD 5,966]

I was really really outraged.... until I learned she was white.

When white folks do this stuff, there must be a good explanation.

I assumed there was a black guy in the back seat with a gun to her head.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I assumed there was a black guy in the back seat with a gun to her head.

That explains it

Of course, because we know you're a bastion of outrage no matter what the skin color

so says the most racist color biased person on this board.

I am equally outraged by all idiots and don't care what color the skin

If young white Mennonites were committing 90% of the crime here and would avoid them also.

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

Impressed how quickly race and gun control made it's way into this thread. Now waiting for someone to blame her driving on Obamacare

[GandD 5,966]

Impressed how quickly race and gun control made it's way into this thread. Now waiting for someone to blame her driving on Obamacare

Her free birth control was making her loopy.

SUCCESS!!!

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Why are we making this about race when clearly it should be about gender?

Dang!! beat me to it...

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

That explains it

so says the most racist color biased person on this board.

I am equally outraged by all idiots and don't care what color the skin

If young white Mennonites were committing 90% of the crime here and would avoid them also.

Whatever you say Archie, whatever you say. I guess you can call me George, but I prefer Mr. Jefferson.