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For Chris and Denise Dill, the loss of their son Daniel last November due to a drunk driver was not easier with the weeks and months that have passed.
Memories – and tears – come back every day.
"Every day, something reminds you," said Chris Dill. "I could not tell you how many times the word Dan is mentioned in a TV show … every little thing."
Daniel Dill, a 29-year-old US Coast Guard computer technician and graduate of Kingsway Regional High School in New Jersey, was a designated driver on November 4, 2017, as he was crossing Virginia Beach. his wife, Natalie, from a birthday party.
His trip was interrupted by a drunk driver who plunged head-on into his car.
After nearly a year of mourning, Daniel Dill's family reunited Wednesday in a Virginia courtroom to see Melissa Ann Hancock sentenced to jail time.
The former reality TV actor will serve a 16-year prison sentence and pay a $ 3,000 fine, a judge said. (The sentence was 21 years old, with five of them suspended.)
Hancock, 26, apologized to Dill's family at the hearing, said a spokeswoman for the Commonwealth Office's attorney.
She pleaded guilty at the beginning of the year to aggravated manslaughter charges and related charges related to Dill 's death. She admitted to having consumed between two and four cocktails in night clubs before driving.
Expressing a day before the sentencing as the family was preparing to drive from New Jersey to Virginia, Chris Dill spoke of the impact of Hancock's actions.
"It totally destroyed the whole family," he says, the emotion rising in his voice. "It's a well done guy who does what's right, makes the right choices, volunteers to be the designated driver … it's brutal." I can not understand what I think."
Dill's family, including his parents, brothers and sisters, his wife and friends, and his friends attended the sentence, which included statements from the victim presented by his family. Chris Dill said that his wife had planned to post several photos of Daniel's baby in his comments.
What does Hancock want to know?
"As I am angry, as I am furious that she had this kind of devastating impact on my family.What gives her the right?"
As for what he would like his late son to know, Chris Dill said, "Forgive me simply because I could not protect him."
At the scene of the accident, Hancock had an alcoholic odor and had bloodshot and glassy eyes, police said. Her blood alcohol level was 0.122%, which exceeded the legal limit of 0.08%.
Hancock appeared in episodes of the television reality television series Little Women: Atlanta and had lived in Virginia Beach only for about a month before the crash. She worked as a saleswoman for the GEICO insurance company.
The sentence on Wednesday was significantly higher than Virginia's sentencing guidelines, the spokeswoman said. These guidelines provide for a maximum sentence of seven years and ten months.
Matt Gray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.
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