Photo by voteprime.
A Chevy Chase woman was sentenced to additional time in prison today for fatally hitting a woman exiting a car near Dupont Circle in 2010 and driving away.
Jorida Davidson was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a jury in July of this year. In 2011, the 34-year-old woman was found guilty of negligent homicide, leaving the scene of a collision involving injury and driving while under the influence of alcohol in the death of 24-year-old Kiela Ryan. The jury in that case was unable to reach a verdict on the involuntary manslaughter charge. Davidson was sentenced to three years and nine months after the first trial, a sentence she is currently serving. She received an additional 33-month sentence today, bringing her total sentence to six-and-a-half years.
Ryan graduated from George Mason University with a degree in criminal justice, according to her obituary.
From the U.S. Attorney for D.C.’s office:
According to the government’s evidence, on Oct. 7, 2010, at about 1:30 a.m., Davidson was operating a 2000 Lexus sport utility vehicle heading northbound on Connecticut Avenue NW, just south of Dupont Circle. She was driving in a lane that would take her into a tunnel that goes under Dupont Circle. At almost the last possible instant, Davidson rapidly changed lanes to avoid going into the tunnel, shifting to a non-tunnel lane on Connecticut Avenue.
At about the same time, the victim, Kiela Ryan, 24, was exiting from a legally parked car on the right side of the street. Davidson hit Ms. Ryan — making no attempt to brake or sound her horn — and then kept driving. An eyewitness got on a bicycle, pursued Davidson’s vehicle and observed the defendant and made a mental note of her car’s tag number.
Davidson, meanwhile, continued driving to her condominium building in Chevy Chase, Md. Police from Montgomery County, Md., found her in the basement garage there, sitting in her vehicle, at about 2:30 a.m. The right front headlight of the vehicle was damaged. The ignition was off, and Davidson had the keys to the Lexus in her hand. She smelled of alcohol and claimed not to know what had happened.
