(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Ripley woman has been ordered by a Payne County judge to begin serving a 20-day jail term on Aug. 8 for causing the death of a motorcyclist on Highway 33 west of Cushing last summer.
Andrea Dawn Brigance, 20, pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide in the 8:25 a.m. Aug. 9, 2010, collision that killed Jody Ray Chesmore, 43, of Cushing.
Payne County Special District Judge Michael Stano ordered her last week to perform 100 hours of community service, attend a victims’ impact panel, pay a $500 fine, and contribute $500 to the victims’ compensation fund.
Brigance was also ordered to pay her incarceration fees, as well as serve three years of probation under a deferred sentence.
Brigance was accused of driving a 2002 Dodge Stratus on Highway 33, one-half mile west of Brethren Road, across the center line while traveling eastbound and hitting the motorcycle traveling westbound on or near the shoulder of the road.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Coleman Parker wrote in an affidavit that when he arrived at the scene of the collision, he saw Cushing Fire Department staff working on a man in the grass.
A black Harley-Davidson motorcycle was on its side in the grass on the north side of the road, the affidavit said.
A white Dodge Stratus with front damage was facing west on the north side of the roadway, the affidavit said.
Shortly after the trooper’s arrival, “a witness, identified as Patrick Gene O’Kelley, made contact with him and advised the white car, which was eastbound, had drifted left of center and struck the westbound motorcycle on the westbound shoulder,” the affidavit said.
“After further investigation of the evidence in the roadway, shoulder and grass, it was determined that the Dodge had drifted left of center and struck the westbound motorcycle on the westbound shouder,” the affidavit said.
The driver of the Dodge told the trooper, “the motorcycle pulled out in front of her, but later stated that was what someone else had told her,” the affidavit said.
Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine on conviction.
Since Brigance was given a deferred sentence, she will not have a criminal record if she successfully completes her three-year probationary period.
In a victim impact statement filed in court records, the motorcyclist’s mother, Carol May Ross of Cushing, wrote that she thought Brigance should receive “the max, at least one year in jail.”
“Jody Chesmore is my loving son. When my husband passed away, I was lonely and depressed.
“Jody called and said he wanted to move to Cushing to be near me. I let him move in my rent house across the street from me.
“His wife had left him and he was down too. We helped each other get over our grief. He told me one time if he could choose his parents, he would have chosen his Dad and I.
“He was the best son anybody could ask for. He was loving and kind to everybody he met.
“Since he passed away, my life has been empty and lost.
“Jody was getting his life on track and he was happy again. My life will never be the same without him.
“He was my rock, my beloved son.”
***
