LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Following an emotional Friday morning hearing, a judge sentenced a Lucerne woman to state prison for a January drunken driving vehicle crash that claimed the life of her friend.
Judge Shanda Harry passed sentence on 31-year-old Patricia Martha Murphy, who was convicted after pleading out to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for the death of Justin Dale, 30, of Lucerne.
Harry accepted Lake County Probation’s recommendation and sentenced Murphy to an upper term of 10 years in prison, with 240 days of credit that includes time already served since her arrest on Jan. 16.
Murphy had a prior 2021 conviction for an alcohol-driving related offense otherwise known as a “wet reckless.” It is not technically a DUI conviction, but has the same effect, said Deputy District Attorney Danny Flesch.
The prior conviction involved Murphy driving under the influence and flipping her vehicle. She was found to have cocaine in her pocket at the time of that crash.
During testimony on Friday, the defense maintained that Murphy’s childhood — marked by an alcoholic mother who turned a blind eye to her boyfriend’s sexual abuse of her two youngest daughters and an alcoholic father who physically abused her, at one point threatening her with a butcher knife when was a teenager — were factors that drove her to use alcohol.
On the day of the wreck, Murphy and Dale had decided to make a visit to friends in Fort Bragg where they spent time watching the sunset on the beach and then in Willits on Jan. 16 and were returning home when the crash occurred shortly before midnight.
During their visits with friends, Murphy admitted that they had been drinking. At the time of the crash, she had a box of empty alcohol bottles in the back seat of her 2012 Volkswagen that she tried to put in the trunk afterward.
In tearful testimony given during the hearing, Murphy — wearing a black and white jail jumpsuit and handcuffed at the waist — recounted being upset that they couldn’t stop and see a friend in Upper Lake so she decided to keep driving.
She said she made a loop through Lucerne and was about to turn back and go home. Dale was asleep in the passenger seat, not wearing a seat belt.
“I reached for something in my car,” Murphy said. “When I reached for it I turned the wheel a little bit. Two seconds later I heard a big crash and I looked up and it was too late.”
The California Highway Patrol report said Murphy drove into the rear of a parked Ram 550 work truck on westbound Highway 20 east of Lake Street in Lucerne.
The CHP arrested Murphy at the scene and she’s remained in custody since.
Family gives impact statements
The Friday hearing included several victim impact statements from Dale’s close friends and family.
Flesch read a text message from Evan Dills, Dale’s friend and employer. “He was the best kind of friend I could ever have asked for,” with a heart of gold, and a smile and laugh that could change the atmosphere in a room, Dills said.
“Everybody that knew him loved him,” and he always had a smile on his face, even when doing hard work, said Dills. “Justin was a true asset to the community.”
He said Murphy made a selfish decision that resulted in Dale’s life being taken away.
Justin Dale’s mother, Amy Dale, spoke of the “unbearable” loss of her only son, who had a kind heart and loved to help people.
She said he helped care for his elderly grandfather and had told his mother that someday he would take care of her and his father. “That will never happen now that he has died.”
Amy Dale said her son loved children and wanted to have a family someday. She was grieving not just his loss but the grandchildren she had hoped to have.
“Patricia, you had very little regard for my son’s life when you got behind the wheel while you were intoxicated. My son is dead because you decided you didn’t want to stay home,” she said.
Amy Dale asked the court to give Murphy the maximum 10-year sentence, not out of vengeance but so she would have time to reflect on how precious life is and to turn her life around to be a good mother to her young daughter.
“You shouldn't have gotten behind the wheel while intoxicated. You hurt us so much. It’s a pain in my heart that’s unbearable,” Amy Dale said.
Also speaking was Justin Dale's uncle, Matthew Kendall, the sheriff of Mendocino County. On this day, Kendall was in civilian clothes, his voice breaking with emotion as he recounted that his nephew was a good man and someone who was an important part of his tight-knit family.
“The decisions that we make when we are young sometimes haunt us,” Kendall said.
He said his nephew had a heart of gold and loved to work. “He was a big portion of our lives and he always will be.”
Kendall said people have to own their mistakes before they can get through them. “We’re at a time now when a lot of folks aren’t owning their mistakes and therefore are repeating them.”
Based on his beliefs, Kendall said he has to forgive. “The only way that can occur is for the person responsible for this to be held accountable, and trust me, I've seen plenty of this in over 30 years.”
Over the objection of defense attorney Sterling Thayer, Judge Harry allowed Flesch to enter into the record an August 2021 Facebook post from Murphy in which she mocked the court system over her wet reckless conviction in July 2021.
She wrote that after almost three years of fighting in court she finally got her driver’s license back, and it only cost her $143, rather than the usual $10,000. She also maintained that she didn’t have a DUI conviction. “Take that, shady ass court system,” she wrote.
Flesch said Murphy also is associated with a known biker gang called the Winos. At his request, the court played an 18-second audio portion of a jail phone call in which she said she and a friend would routinely drive drunk but that she was the least drunk.
Thayer called Murphy’s sister, Ingrid Kerr, to the stand. Kerr testified about their abusive childhood and the sexual abuse her two younger sisters endured due to their mother’s neglect.
Kerr said the result is that they’ve turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism, a “numbing agent” that she herself has stopped using in recent years.
During her time on the stand, which followed her sister’s, Murphy referred to Justin Dale as “Gimli,” a dwarf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” saga. With his short, stout physique and big auburn beard, Dale resembled Gimli, a loyal member of the Fellowship of the Ring.
She recounted inviting him over for biscuits and gravy on the morning of Jan. 16 and making the “random” decision to go to the coast.
Murphy described the crash and how afterward she tried to wake Dale up but couldn’t. Emergency medical personnel told her he died. “Then I lost control and I screamed.”
During questioning, Murphy said, “I went through every dysfunction you can imagine,” recounting the abuse and neglect by her parents.
When asked how she felt about the potential term of 10 years in prison, she said she was scared but that she expected it. “I don’t feel probation is a just response or a likely one.”
She said she hopes to go to a fire camp and become a firefighter, and then hopes to get back on track for a teaching career. She said she never planned to drink again.
Murphy said she didn’t get to say goodbye to Dale, and has lost almost every friend she had because of the fatal wreck. “I have to live without him as well.”
With her hands still cuffed, she unfolded a written statement which she read, telling his family she knows that saying she is sorry is not enough, and that it won’t “ the dark reality brought on by my bad choices.”
“I can’t ever know how I feel,” she said, adding the regret, guilt and pain will weigh on her long after the sentence is over. “He was the only person who cared enough to make sure I was OK.”
She added, “If there was anything I could do to fix this, I would do it without hesitation,” and she said she hoped they could forgive her for her poor choices.
During questioning by Flesch, Murphy admitted she failed to seek counseling after her previous case.
Flesch, who acknowledged her abusive past, said he knew Dale from around town, and that he was a happy go lucky guy. “She gets a second or third or fourth chance. Justin does not.”
Thayer asked for a lesser sentence, explaining that Murphy is willing and able to take responsibility for what she did. “It’s not anything that anybody wanted to intend. She made an incredibly stupid decision. She has to live with the consequences of her decision. She killed her best friend. If that’s not going to change someone’s life, someone's perspective on life, I don’t see what 10 years is going to do.”
Judge Harry said Murphy had taken responsibility and had a ““significantly unpleasant childhood.” However, her recent, previous case that also had involved driving and alcohol counted against her, as she didn’t take the lesson of avoiding driving while intoxicated.
In sentencing Murphy to 10 years in prison, Harry said she hoped Murphy will use the time to deal with her issues so she can be there for her daughter. “She needs a mother who can mother her.”
Harry also granted restitution to Dale’s family but waived all other fines.
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