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Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Royal Oak Woman Sentenced to 5-15 Years in Fatal Drunken Driving Crash

53-year-old woman from Richmond killed in January accident. "The reality was someone was going to die and ... it was my wife," husband of victim tells court at sentencing.

MOUNT CLEMENS – In an emotion-packed courtroom, 20-year-old Kelly Marie Nagle of Royal Oak learned Wednesday she will spend at least the next five years – and as many as 15 years – in prison for the  of a Macomb County woman.

Nagle pleaded guilty on July 12 to driving while drunk, killing 53-year-old Annette Eileen Evans of Richmond.

“I am so sorry. I wish it was me, I wish it was,” Nagle sobbed in Macomb Circuit Court as she addressed Evans’ family before learning her sentence.

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“It’s good to hear her express remorse,” Dan Evans, the victim’s husband, said after the sentencing. “But you still have to ask yourself: What the hell was she thinking?”

Nagle was on probation for a previous drunken driving incident at the time of the Jan. 16 crash.

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Evans noted the sentence came during the week when he would have celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary.

More than 20 of the victim’s friends and family attended Wednesday’s sentencing, many wearing red shirts or blouses and buttons showing  Evans’ picture.

“Red was her favorite color,” her husband said through tears.

Nagle, who could have received three years in prison, will serve at least five years and as many as 15 under the sentence handed down by Macomb Circuit Judge Matthew Switalski.

“It’s like she fired a 2,000-pound bullet loaded with Jagermeister,” Evans said in his address to the judge. “The reality was someone was going to die and, basically, it was my wife.”

Attorney D. Todd Williams, speaking on behalf of Nagle’s family, called the case a tragedy for both families.

His client, Williams said, takes full responsibility for her actions. “Never has she pointed the finger at anybody else,” he said.

Nagle, who was studying to become a medical assistant at the time of the fatal accident, had family support in the court Wednesday.

"No one wants to see their child go to prison," Williams said. "But I know her mother is devastated for the Evans family as well."

Nagle was returned to the Macomb County Jail following sentencing and will be transferred to Jackson State Prison. It isn’t certain that she will spend the remainder of her sentence there.

In July, Nagle pleaded guilty to causing a fatality while driving drunk, a felony under Michigan law.

Nagle was driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer southbound on Dequindre Road south of 19 Mile in Sterling Heights shortly after midnight Jan. 16 when she attempted to pass a red Mazda sedan in front of her and ended up driving head-on into oncoming traffic, according to Sterling Heights Police.

Nagle's vehicle struck the Ford Ranger driven by Evans, pinning the victim inside. Evans was transported to , where she was pronounced dead.

No one else involved in the accident was injured. Tests indicated Nagle’s blood alcohol level was 0.23, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s office said – nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08.

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