Text message from a killer

"I just killed someone. She died, and now I'm pretty much waiting for the cops to come."

The matter-of-fact voice of a cold-blooded killer, or the glib chatter of a teen party girl?

Last week's trial of Tiffeny Hamlyn showed they were one and the same. The 19-year-old Fryeburg woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from the March 26 hit-and-run death of a young mother, Tiffany Hamilton.

Leaving the scene of an accident is, of course, despicable. For most people, it's impossible to imagine leaving an injured animal in the road, let along another human being. But Hamlyn not only ran, she immediately began compounding her crime by lying to police.

In the hours after the accident, she gave investigators an innocent account: she looked down to adjust the radio, heard a noise and thought she had hit a mailbox or pothole. Only later, at home, did she hear on a police scanner that a woman had been killed.

So, naturally, she called police. Right?

Not this girl. According to her account, she drank some vodka and went to bed.

All lies, as the police investigation revealed.

She had been drinking all day, according to witnesses. After the accident, she sent the incriminating text message to a friend about having killed someone.

Yet, as horrible as this is, we are even more shocked that other people knew Hamlyn was drunk before the accident and did not stop her from driving. Four hours after the accident, she registered a 0.17 percent blood-alcohol level, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. She was very drunk.

"My mom doesn't even care that I'm drinking, right now," Hamlyn told a friend in one text message at 10:17 a.m. that day. "She's just making fun of me."

Police interviewed students and a teacher at Fryeburg Academy who either knew or suspected Hamlyn had been drinking. At one point during that fateful day, a friend drove in front of Hamlyn so she could flash her car's headlights at oncoming traffic if Hamlyn suddenly lost control of her vehicle.

They clearly knew she was drunk and, yet, did nothing.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O'Connor said Hamlyn's family and friends acted as "enablers" to her drinking.

Justice Donald Marden was more blunt. "Every one of those persons who saw Tiffeny Hamlyn get behind the wheel, knowing full well her condition, is responsible, morally and ethically, for the death of Tiffany Hamilton," he said.

In other words, they too have blood on their hands.

Hamlyn will now have three years in prison to ponder her life and her crime, part of an 18-year sentence Marden gave her. He also suspended her driver's license for 10 years.

"She's going to have to change her life, or her life will be changed for her," O'Connor said during the trial.

Unfortunately, the victim's family can change nothing. A friend is lost. A mother has no daughter, a husband no wife and a small boy no mother.

If that's not sobering, nothing is.

Anyone who failed to stop this girl from driving will carry that on their conscience forever. 

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