ELLSWORTH — A Deer Isle woman whose boyfriend died a year ago when she drove her car over him was sentenced Friday to serve 18 months in prison.
Kimberly Phelan, 30, pleaded no contest Friday in Hancock County Superior Court to a charge of aggravated operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicants. She had been charged with manslaughter, criminal aggravated OUI and reckless conduct, but the manslaughter and reckless conduct charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement approved Friday by Justice Ann Murray.
Phelan received an overall sentence of eight years in prison with all but 18 months suspended, according to court documents. She also was ordered by Murray to serve three years of probation upon her release, to pay a $2,100 fine, and had her driver’s license suspended for 10 years.
The fatal incident occurred early on the morning of Sept. 15, 2012, after Phelan and Andrew Ray, 31, had been drinking alcohol in Ellsworth and then, while driving back to Deer Isle, stopped in Blue Hill to smoke marijuana, police have said.
While the couple was at a park on Water Street in Blue Hill, they got into an argument and then Phelan drove off in her 2003 Pontiac Aztek, Detective Alan Brown of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department wrote in a police affidavit about the incident. A short time later, she came back to pick up Ray, and the two resumed fighting, according to Brown.
Phelan told police that “during that argument, Andrew Ray punched in the passenger side window and she decided to [back up] away from him with the vehicle,” according to Brown’s affidavit. “While doing this, Kimberly Phelan ran over him with at least the front tires of the vehicle.”
Phelan called 911 to report the incident but drove off after EMTs arrived to treat Ray. A short time later, after speaking to dispatchers on her cellphone, she pulled over by the side of Route 15 in Sedgwick and waited for a police officer to come pick her up.
Ray was taken to Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at around 6 a.m., about 90 minutes after being run over.
A subsequent blood test indicated that Phelan had a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 percent, or nearly twice the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle, according to police.
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