Shorter sentence denied driver in crash that killed 4
A Delaware woman who in 2002 caused a car crash that killed four members of a northern Baltimore County family should remain in prison, the Delaware Board of Pardons has decided. Tishara A. Duffy had asked that the remainder of her nine-year prison term be commuted in the deaths of Wayne and Emily Abbott of Freeland and their sons, Douglas, 9, and Brian, 5. Duffy, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to first-degree assault and four counts of criminally negligent homicide, expressed remorse during a hearing Thursday for her role in the high-speed accident on Route 1 north of Dover, but the board voted not to recommend to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner that Duffy be set free. "What we heard was just heart-wrenching testimony from both families," the board's chairman, Lt. Gov. John Carney, said after the hearing. "It was just awful. The whole thing is a complete tragedy." Duffy, who was 22 at the time of the crash, was weaving in and out of traffic, police said, when her car struck the Abbotts' van, which flipped over into oncoming traffic. The Abbotts' daughter, Margaret Emily, who was 6, was critically injured but recovered and lives with relatives.
