"Justice has finally arrived": Oakland County woman sentenced to state prison for fleeing fatal hit-and-run
PONTIAC, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – An Oakland County woman who fled the scene of a hit-and-run that killed a Michigan State University student will spend at least the next year in state prison.
Tubtim Howson, 57, fled the country to Thailand shortly after hitting 22-year-old Benjamin Kable, trying to escape prosecution. But on Wednesday, she faced the judge and Kable's parents during her sentencing.
"While we were being crushed by grief, you twisted the knife, not a shred of concern for your victim or his family. None of this was necessary, and it was all your doing. You made every bad decision. You have no one else to blame," Michael Kable, Benjamin's father, said.
On New Year's Day, Howson was driving on Rochester Road in Oakland Township when she struck the MSU student who was visiting home for the holidays.
"Ben also loved flannel, which is why I am wearing his jacket because this is all I have to wrap my arms around him," Stacey Kable, Benjamin's mother, said while addressing the court. "I turn to you as a mother-to-mother because I cannot understand how you could leave him. You have a son roughly the same age as Ben, in the road like garbage after hitting and killing him."
Howson fled Michigan but was tracked to Thailand and later extradited to the United States.
"She could've turned herself in as she packed her bags to leave the country, but she didn't," Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Ajlouni said.
Howson opted out of trial and pleaded no contest to failing to stop at the scene.
"Yes, she left. She made mistakes, and that's what she pleaded to, but making her out to be a monster now deserving even further or harsher penalty doesn't serve justice, your honor," Jalal Dallo, Howson's attorney, said.
The defense wanted Howson to serve a year at the county jail, where she's been for the last four months. Instead, Judge Michael Warren sentenced Howson to serve between one to five years in state prison.
"I have no control over the charges. The charges are what the charges are, and the charges are not for his slain. It relates to what she did after, and therefore there's limited penalties that can be imposed," Warren said.
During the sentencing, Howson, through an interpreter, apologized to Kable's family.
"I'm sure she would like to do it over again, but it was not just one event, and it went on over a long period of time, and basically, she only does the right thing when she's facing consequences, and you know now justice has finally arrived," Michael Kable said after the sentencing.