GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids woman who was behind the wheel in a hill-jumping crash that killed her best friend will spend several months in jail.
Ella Vece, 20, was originally charged with a felony but pleaded guilty to a one-year misdemeanor, moving violation causing death.
In a Kent County courtroom Thursday afternoon, Vece was sentenced to four months in jail, two years probation and 200 hours of community service.
"I'll never be able to express how sorry I am," a tearful Vece told Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock moments before learning her fate. "I wake up every day and I wish I still had my best friend, and I understand that no words can ever make up for the actions that I caused, but I am truly sorry."
Vece and her best friend, Nevaeh Downs, 18, both graduated from Northview High School and were attending Grand Rapids Community College.
On Thanksgiving night, the friends were trying to "catch air" on a steep hill on Jericho Avenue between 10 Mile Road and Kroes Street NE south of Rockford.
They were in Downs' car, but Vece was driving when the crash happened.
Kent County deputies reported that Vece crested the blind hill at more than 100 miles an hour and was startled by a vehicle in the opposite lane.
She jerked the wheel, lost control and hit a tree, according to the report from the Kent County Sheriff's Office.
Downs died at the scene.
VICTIM'S MOM ASKS FOR NO JAIL
In a letter to the judge, Downs' mom urged Trusock to give her daughter's best friend community service instead of jail time.
"(Her letter was) profound, impactful, moving, and quite frankly an extension of Christian grace," said defense attorney Keary Sawyer in court.
Vece's attorney also spoke of the hill's inherent danger.
"It's no excuse here, but this jump is a hazard," Sawyer told Trusock. "I urge you not to make Ella an example so other kids won't go out on the jump. That's an attractive thought to say, 'Hey, don't do this or this will happen.' But in four years, there will be a new set of high school students."
Sawyer said he knows of the hill's fatal draw from his own childhood.
"When I was in junior high, two friends went over that jump and they both died," Sawyer said in court.
A Target 8 investigation found that Nevaeh Downs was the sixth person to die on or near Jericho's hill in the last six decades. Four of the victims were teens. Records show there have been at least four non-fatal hill-jumping accidents since 2004.
Sawyer told Target 8 previously that the incline is too steep, too narrow and too tempting for young, immature drivers.
On that point Trusock agreed.
JUDGE CALLS FOR CHANGE TO 'EXTREMELY DANGEROUS' HILL
"Jericho is a road that has a hill on top of it that is extremely steep from either side," explained Trusock from the bench. "You can't see what's happening until you get up to the very, very top. Quite frankly, I haven't seen a road like that anywhere in the Lower Peninsula."
Trusock said he hopes Downs' death will prompt change.
"I hope that other young people hear about this and realize how dangerous and how stupid it is to do this," Trusock said. "The other thing is that I hope, as Mr. Sawyer just mentioned, that the road commission finally does something or looks into this because this court thinks that (hill) is extremely dangerous. It's what we call an attractive nuisance, and people have been doing it for decades and dying."
But Trusock went on to say that nothing excuses Vece's actions that day.
"I realize that you're young, that you're immature. I've done many juvenile resentencing hearings and listened to experts talk about how the brain is not fully developed until you're 25 years old. But there's no excuse or justification for this. It's just reckless....You are going to have to live with this the rest of your life."
Vece turned to look at her parents before deputies led her from the courtroom for transport to the Kent County Correctional Facility.
The Kent County Road Commission declined to comment Thursday on the accident, the hill on Jericho or any efforts to change it.
The commission said it is prevented from speaking because the agency received a notice of intent to sue.
Target 8 is not aware of any pending litigation.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Ella Vece's age. We regret this error which has been fixed.