SYDNEY - An Australian driver who ran over and killed a man who threw snacks at her car was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison.
Sarah May Ward acted aggressively and impulsively when she aimed her car at a group of young men throwing cheese ball snacks at her car, Justice Roderick Howie of the New South Wales Supreme Court said when he sentenced her. Ward, 38, was found guilty of murder last month.
She drank two bottles of wine and used cannabis, Ecstasy and Valium before getting into her car June 7, 2008, prosecutors said. When the men threw snacks at her car, she got out and had a physical altercation with one before driving her car into the group.
On a second attempt, she drove straight at 21-year-old Eli Westlake, running him over and killing him.
The judge said he believed there was more involved than Westlake's brother and friends claimed but said Ward was definitely the aggressor and had time to consider her actions before driving at the group a second time.
"She was not provoked, but incensed by the fact that she had been humiliated, as she saw it ... she was in a highly aggressive and abusive state," Howie said. "She clearly wanted to teach the young men a lesson."
Ward denied deliberately targeting Westlake, saying she was scared of the young men and trying to get away when she hit the accelerator by mistake.
Ward will be eligible for parole in 2027.
Topic: Australian who killed snack-thrower sent to prison (Read 1330 times)