Former Teacher To Serve A Decade For Deadly Hit-And-Run
GRAND PRAIRE (CBSDFW.COM) - A former Grand Prairie school teacher was sentenced to ten years in prison for the hit-and-run death of a six-year-old boy. Tammy Lowe received an eight year sentence for Manslaughter and a ten year sentence for Failing to Stop and Render Aid in the death of John Paul Raidy, also of Grand Prairie.
The sentences will be serve simultaneously. Lowe's combined sentences add up to ten years in prison.
It was an emotional trial. In a victim impact statement immediately after sentencing, John Raidy's mother told the court she'd been living in a sleepless, private hell ever since Lowe killed her son a year ago January.
"I will never get over this loss," Lauren Raidy-Brooks told Lowe. "I wish more than anything that I could say I hate you. But I can't, and I don't. Nor am I anywhere close to forgiving you for what you did."
"It was a pure evil act of hitting and killing a child and running and hiding to cover it up the way you did. Nothing you can ever say will make up for your actions," said Raidy-Brooks.
The boy's father was even more blunt in court. "You are not sorry, you are empty," Allen Ellis told Lowe.
Outside the courtroom the boy's grandmother claimed Tammy Lowe showed no remorse for killing the boy and tried to cover it up. "I'm glad she's going to the penitentiary, I'm really glad," said Anita Eads. She was incensed that Lowe had initially lied to her husband and even allowed him to purchase a new hood to replace the damaged one on the car that ran over her grandson. "I lost every shred of hope for thinking Tammy Lowe had remorse and that she really did want to turn herself in, when I heard that they had bought a new hood for their car."
She added, "I'm sickened; I'm physically and mentally sickened by what I've had to listen to."
Lowe, who'd hidden her head in her hands occasionally during sentencing, blew kisses to her family and friends afterwards as she headed off to jail. The 54-year-old former teacher is first-time offender and could be eligible for parole after serving four years in prison, according to her attorney, Susan Anderson. "Just because she's eligible doesn't necessarily mean she'll get parole. Obviously we were disappointed probation was not recommended by the jury, but that's their decision and we can't second-guess the jury."
Another defense attorney, James Lee Bright, argued Lowe's case was going to be hard from the moment she decided to flee. "The type of facts we had, the fact that she went missing for five days, I think there's going to be a lot of outrage and a lot of people that are just very, very upset by the circumstances of what occurred and I think that carries over into any trial like this," he told reporters.
Both attorneys agreed Lowe had mentally prepared herself for the sentence and the hard time.
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