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Woman sentenced in crash into icy SW Michigan lake that killed boyfriend

Posted at 9:32 AM, Sep 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-25 09:32:54-04

PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — A 22-year-old woman has been sentenced to 1½ to 15 years behind bars for a crash into an icy southwestern Michigan lake that killed her boyfriend, who was a passenger in the SUV she was driving.

The Herald Palladium reports Tara Smith learned her punishment Monday in Van Buren County Circuit after earlier pleading guilty to operating under the influence causing death.

Twenty-two-year-old Jezreel Wallace of Bangor Township was pronounced dead at a hospital following the December crash into School Section Lake in Bangor Township. Police have said Smith was able to escape from the vehicle and swim to land. She sought help at a nearby home.

An investigation determined that the SUV overshot the end of a dead-end road, went onto the ice-covered lake and broke through the ice.