Aimee Michael: Ga. Hit and Run Driver Sentenced to 36 Years in Prison

ATLANTA (CBS/WGCL/AP) Georgia woman Aimee Michael was sentenced to 36 years in prison Thursday by a judge for causing a collision that killed five people on Easter Sunday 2009.

The 24-year-old woman was also sentenced to 14 years probation. Prosecutors had sought 50 years in prison, while the defense had asked for 10 years.

On Monday, a jury convicted Michael on all 15 counts, including five counts of felony vehicular homicide, for the 2009 Easter Sunday hit-and-run crash that killed five people, reports CBS affiliate WGCL.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams also sentenced Michael's mother, Sheila, to eight years in prison. The week before her daughter's trial, Sheila Michael pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts. She admitted that she helped her daughter repair the BMW she was driving in an attempt to cover up her involvement.

Aimee Michael sobbed as she apologized for what she had done. "I wanted to say that I have wronged three families. For that I am sorry," she said.

"Not a day goes by that I don't wish that they were here and not me," Michael said of the victims.

Sheila Michael also apologized for her role.

Her husband Robert Michael apologized for what his daughter did. "Her actions, I can't explain. Put it to you this way, she was not raised that way," he said.

The judge wiped away tears as she told the packed courtroom that this was most difficult case she's ever handled. As she handed down the sentences, she scolded Michael and her mother, telling Sheila Michael that the one time she should have stood up and shown her daughter the difference between right and wrong, she failed.