Laugh at Your Dead Victim... Get 6 1/2 More Years Tacked onto Your Prison Sentence

Here is a great new word for everyone, insouciant. Dictionary.com defines it as free from concern, worry, or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant. This is from the associated press... Two years ago, Melissa Arrington, 27 years old, was driving, drunk of course. She also has a suspended driver's license from, you guessed it, another DUI. She swerved off the road and hit a bicyclist, and then continued another 800 feet before stopping. Her blood alcohol level was nearly double Arizona's .08 legal limit.

A week after the collision happened, she is making a telephone call to a friend, from her jail cell. The male voice on the other side was,I guess trying to cheer her up with a joke, but that is when everything went downhill for this drunk.

The man told Arrington that an acquaintance believed she should get a medal and a parade because she had "taken out" a "tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot." Arrington then laughs. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded, "No, it's not."

She continues to laugh, as if killing another person is funny. The local sheriff's office, who records all jail house phone conversations, turned the tape over to the judge. The judge listens in horror as he is thinking about the proper jail term to deliver in this case. It turns out, Judge Michael Crukshank is the person who deserves a medal. The low term for her would have been 4 years state prison, and the maximum being 11 1/2 years. The judge gave her 10 1/2 years state prison time, not only for the taking of another life, but also because of her insouciant attitude.

I have never encountered such a person who is so callous that she could care less about taking another life. Too bad it wasn't her that was on the bicycle. She of course, through her attorney, said that she always felt remorseful, and the public defender described her as never being cold, callous or flippant. I hope the public defender looks up the word insouciant in the dictionary. Melissa Arrington later told how she hopes to share her story with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, yeah right!

When I am conducting an interview of a person who just killed someone, I always give the death details at the end of the interview. I try to break the news softly as it can be traumatic even for the person who did the killing (it is still considered an accident in most cases). I have never interviewed a person, no matter how drunk, who didn't break down and cry after hearing the news. Let me meet a Melissa Arrington type, and I will see to it that they get the same justice that she is now getting.

FYI, google search her name and there are several stories on this case, as well as a you tube video with her voice, and her sick laughter on it.