ST LOUIS: St. Louis County Circuit Judge Michael Jamison, sentenced a former Sunset Hills police officer Christine Miller,43, to eight years on each of the four manslaughter counts besides seven years on a charge of DUI driving that resulted in the death of four Indian students and critically injuring the driver, also an Indian student.
Judge Jamison ruled that the sentences would run concurrently, meaning thereby that Miller would effectively serve no more than eight years in prison. Miller would be eligible for parole once 85 percent of the sentence has been served. Christine Miller was facing up to 67 years in state prison for driving on the side of Dougherty Ferry. Her blood alcohol level three hours after the collision was twice the legal limit in St Louis MO. Miller had been off-duty, drinking at O’Leary’s Restaurant & Bar, about 1,000 feet from the Sunset Hills police station, before crashing into the students’ car.
Miller entered a blind plea in December to four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the March 21 2009 deaths of four people who were passengers in a car that Miller’s vehicle struck in the intersection of Dougherty Ferry and Des Peres Road in Des Peres.
Killed in the collision were four young Indian students: the 23-year-old Anusha Anumolu, 23-year- old Anita Lakshmi, 22-year-old Priya Muppavarapu; and 25-year-old Satya Subhakar. The three were of Charleston Illinois while Satya was of Aurora in Illinois. The three Charleston victims were studying at Eastern Illinois University.
The driver of the car that was crashed in the accident was 27-year-old Nitesh Adusumilli, of Ballwin. He was severely injured and continues to recover. Christine Miller suffered severe head trauma in the crash. She pleaded guilty to an assault charge in Adusumilli’s injuries.
Miller served as a patrol officer in Sunset Hills for 12 years and was suspended without pay from her job after the incident. Sunset Hills Police Chief William LeGrand announced that Miller had officially resigned her position.
Frustrated that former Sunset Hills police officer Christine Miller received only an 8-year prison sentence for a drunken driving crash that killed four people, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch called it “a terribly inappropriate sentence.” He added, “It seems to me she got four free felonies.”
His assistant on the case, Alan Key, had recommended a 20-year term for the 2009 collision Miller caused, off-duty, in Des Peres. Even the defense attorney Rosenbum said outside the court that he did not envy the judge in this particular case. Obviously, it could have been harsher, he is reported to have said.
During the hearing, Miller, faced relatives of the dead, who had come to America from India for the hearing. Though they suffered heavily they still prayed for Miller. In a statement that she read out in the Court, Miller said that her heart broke into pieces when she learned what she had done. She also said, “I was amazed at what profound, heartfelt and selfless people you are, after learning that you were praying for me after what I had done, while you were going through your own grieving.” As she spoke, she dabbed her eyes and nose with a tissue.
Nitesh Adusumilli, now 29, of Ballwin, told the court that he continued to have a strong sense of guilt for the four souls that have been lost. One of those killed was his fiancee, Anitha Lakshmi Veerapaneni. Adusumilli said none of the occupants of his car drank alcohol. He said he remembered dining at an Indian restaurant and bowling that night, and nothing else until five days after the crash. “It wasn’t until I was shown a newspaper did things sink in,” he explained.
Judge Jamison said he took into account the numerous letters he received in Miller’s support, but noted that she bore a “greater responsibility” because of her job.
Ashwin Patel
