PARIS – A 22-year-old Old Orchard Beach woman will spend 30 months in prison and have her driver’s license suspended for six years for a 2004 Lovell crash that burned a passenger to death.
Christina L. Bailey was sentenced on Friday in Oxford County Superior Court for manslaughter and drunk-driving charges by Justice Roland A. Cole, who credited the young woman with accepting responsibility for the fiery accident that killed Chester Allen of Lovell, who was 23 when he died.
Before her sentence was announced, Bailey began apologizing to Cole for her actions. Cole instructed her to instead turn around and face members of Allen’s family sitting in the courtroom behind her.
“I made a mistake, and I’m sorry,” she said to the family members while crying. She then sat at the defense table beside her attorney, John Jenness, with her head bowed and wiping away tears with a tissue.
Bailey was sentenced to one year in prison plus six months of driver’s license suspension and a $2,100 fine for a Class C felony charge of operating under the influence. She was then sentenced to nine years in prison with all but 18 months suspended for a Class A felony manslaughter charge.
Cole also ordered her to perform 100 hours of community service and gave her four years’ probation, during which she must receive substance abuse treatment and counseling and submit to random drug testing.
“You have a chance to do well with the rest of your life once you’ve completed (prison time) and completed probation,” said Cole, who said the young woman’s life so far had been “chaotic” and marred by drug and alcohol abuse.
“If you make bad choices while you’re on probation, … you risk 7 more years in prison,” he said.
Bailey was living in Limerick on Aug. 2, 2004, when she and three friends including Allen headed to meet others at a gravel pit on Old Waterford Road. Bailey lost control of the 2001 Chevrolet pick-up she was driving, and the vehicle hit a tree.
Bailey and two passengers, a 15-year-old girl and Cory Allen, Chester Allen’s teenage brother, were able to escape, but Chester Allen was pinned inside by a crushed roof. Initial attempts to rescue him were unsuccessful.
Shortly after the crash, the truck caught fire, preventing further rescue attempts. Bailey’s blood-alcohol level that day exceeded the legal limit.
Bailey was indicted in November 2004. Members of Allen’s family declined to comment Friday as they left the courthouse.
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