Shantel Witt convicted of first-degree manslaughter

(Update: Adding video of ruling, comments from a friend of Stone)

Ruling in a closely watched, unusual case in which the defendant’s guilt was not in dispute, a Deschutes County judge on Friday found Shantel Lynn Witt guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the Dec. 30, 2017 crash that killed cyclist and dentist Marika Stone.

Circuit Judge Michael Adler set sentencing for Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 9 a.m.

Under Ballot Measure 11, first-degree manslaughter carries a mandatory 10-year sentence, while second-degree manslaughter is a mandatory 75 months (just over six years), Deputy District Attorney Kari Hathorn said.

Prosecutors said Witt faces a maximum sentence of 15 years on the manslaughter conviction and the other misdemeanor charges, including DUII-drugs, two counts of recklessly endangering and possession of oxycodone and other drugs.

If the judge had ruled as the defense sought and found Witt guilty of second-degree manslaughter, the maximum sentence would have been 11 years.

Witt pleaded guilty late last month to misdemeanor oxycodone possession, with a presumptive sentence of nearly a year in jail.

During a week-long trial that concluded earlier this week, Witt’s defense lawyers had not disputed that her pickup truck crossed the oncoming lane on a curve and violently struck Stone, 38, who was the third of three cyclists riding single-file down Dodds Road, east of Bend, that sunny day.

Instead, they disputed the prosecution’s claims, buttressed by testimony from the two surviving riders and others who rushed to the scene, that Witt had showed no remorse for what she had just done.

The defense had sought to convince Adler that Witt’s actions and statements had not shown “extreme indifference to the value of human life” — the definition of first-degree manslaughter, which can bring a sentence of up to 20 years, as opposed to the 10-year maximum prison term under the second-degree manslaughter conviction they sought.

But ruling in a packed courtroom Friday morning, Adler stepped through the evidence to the contrary, saying her actions after the crash showed no remorse or concern for the victim or others, but instead was angry at “the f—–g bicyclists” and also saying “this is b—s—.”

Witt, 42, was found in blood and urine samples to have nearly a dozen prescription drugs in her system — several she did not have prescriptions for, and one, Xanax, that actually had been prescribed for her dog. Several witnesses testified she’d slurred her words, spoke slowly and appeared to be drunk.

Adler read his ruling to the courtroom, finding that Witt was “aware of the dangers and risks from her use of these drugs, and the obvious risk of driving her vehicle on the public roads after taking these drugs, and consciously disregarding this very substantial and unjustifiable risk, and her driving a truck on public roads after consuming this mix of drugs, which resulted in a crash of her vehicle with a pedestrian, or the person on a bicycle.”

“This was a substantial and unjustifiable risk, that her conduct in consuming these drugs and then driving would cause the death of another human being,” the judge said.

A friend of Stone, Kirsten Klimt, told NewsChannel 21 after the ruling, “It doesn’t make anything better, but it feels good to acknowledge fault and wrongdoing, and it makes me feel like there is some fairness.”

“It’s been a long year-plus,” she added, “and it’s been really hard to see no human response that I can identify with from Ms. Witt” after the fatal crash.

The testimony was heard by Adler after Witt and her attorneys waived the right to a jury trial.