Watkinsville woman gets five years in prison for wreck that killed Athens teen
A Watkinsville woman was recently sentenced to five years in prison after she pleaded guilty in Clarke County Superior Court to charges stemming from a fatal wreck that claimed the life of a 13-year-old Athens girl.
Molly Anne Tully, 28, entered the negotiated plea on June 20 before Judge Eric Norris who imposed a sentence of 10 years with the first five years in prison.
Tully pleaded guilty to first-degree vehicular homicide in connection with a Jan. 31, 2021, wreck when Georgia State Patrol troopers said she was driving the wrong way on the Athens Perimeter and crashed head on into a Dodge Charger near Mitchell Bridge Road.
Tully was driving under the influence, according to the indictment.
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The Charger’s driver, Yanelis M. Figueroa, 20, of Athens was seriously injured, but her passenger, Kayla Marie Smith, an eighth-grader at Hilsman Middle School in Athens, was killed, according to the patrol report.
The patrol said Tully was driving east in a Hyundai Genesis when she crashed into the Dodge. The Hyundai belonged to a 27-year-old Palm Beach, Fla., woman, who told police she and Tully have been friends since they were in the second grade.
She and Tully had been drinking prior to the wreck, according to the report. After they left a restaurant, the woman told police that Tully stopped the car and told her, "I think you should get out of the car." The woman reported that she did.
The wreck occurred shortly before 11 p.m., but prior to the wreck a warning was broadcast by police about a wrong-way driver seen on the bypass.
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Tully was also charged with unlawful possession of THC oil and having a pistol in her possession while having a controlled substance. Those charges were dismissed under the agreement reached between her lawyer, Edward Tolley, and the Western Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
Tully asked for and received a first offender sentence, meaning she can have the felony conviction removed from her record if she successfully completes probation upon her release from prison.
During the first three years of her probation, she was ordered to report to a Day Reporting Center, a Georgia Department of Corrections program that targets high-risk persons who need close supervision and programs for such issues as substance absue.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Watkinsville woman gets 5 years in prison for crash that killed girl
