CRIME REWIND: Parents of victim used tragedy to educate others

Jan. 26—The family of a Northeastern State University student killed by a drunken driver has used her death to educate the public.

On July 21, 2003, Andrea Beth Doyle, 21, was killed in a head-on crash on U.S. Highway 62, 5.4 miles east of Tahlequah. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that Trisha D. Catron, who was 19 years old at the time, was driving westbound and went left of center before striking Doyle's vehicle, causing it to catch fire.

Doyle was transported to St. Francis Hospital, where she died from massive injuries sustained in the crash. Catron was listed in serious condition with head, trunk external, arm and leg injuries.

Catron, who had left a party in Stilwell that night against the advice of friends, was charged with first-degree manslaughter in October 2003.

She was arrested in 2004 on suspicion on driving under the influence while free on bond on the manslaughter charge. That case was ultimately dismissed as part of a plea agreement among the administration of then-District Attorney Richard Gray, Catron, and defense attorney Stephen Fabian.

Catron's case had ended in three mistrials, and only one trial made it through the process, with jurors deadlocked. She was placed on supervised probation in January 2006 and ordered to pay a $250 fine and $269 in court costs.

Chief District Judge Bruce Sewell, the sentencing judge, warned Catron at her sentencing that the deferred judgment would be like putting a beacon over her head that would flash if she had future brushes with the law.

Catron was also ordered to speak at five Victim Impact Panel sessions, in accordance with VIP policies and procedures. Sewell initially ordered all the appearances to be made in Tahlequah within a year, but amended that decision when Penny Gooch, Northeast Oklahoma VIP director, said there are not that many VIP sessions there.

In 2007, Catron made the headlines again after she was arrested in Adair County for possession of marijuana and for detoxification. Prosecutors said an application to accelerate her deferred five-year judgment received on her manslaughter case was sought.

Catron was sentenced to life in prison, with all but the first 10 years suspended, after Sewell accelerated her deferred judgment.

She sent Sewell a six-page handwritten letter while awaiting to be transported to prison, asking him to give her another chance. Sewell in 2008 modified Catron's sentence to life in prison, with all but five years suspended, and a post-conviction relief was denied in 2009.

Catron appealed her manslaughter conviction that same year, and the Court of Criminal Appeals granted the dismissal of appeal.

Nearly eight years to the day after she was involved in a fatal car crash, Catron was released from prison, and she is on probation for the remainder of her life.

Meanwhile, Ernie and Rhonda Doyle had spent years educating the public about the dangers of drinking and driving.

The victims' impact panels program began in Oklahoma as court-referral programs. The programs were designed to provide DUI offenders with first-hand accounts of those who have been victimized by drunken or drugged drivers.

They took Andrea's mangled 1991 Chrysler with them to court hearings and some of the programs at which they've spoken. Rhonda died in 2021.

At the time of her death, Andrea was also a member of Delta Zeta sorority, worked at Walmart in Tahlequah, and helped on the family farm.