Friends say that it was heroin withdrawal that caused 41-year-old Paula Dawne Laster to climb into an elderly woman’s car in May and then drive into that woman, causing serious injury.
Initially charged with carjacking, Laster pleaded guilty Thursday in Albemarle County Circuit Court under an agreement that will provide her with residential drug treatment and more than three years in prison.
"She was feeling desperate and made horrible decisions which she very much regrets," defense attorney Lacey Parker told the court.
Judge Cheryl Higgins took the plea agreement under advisement to allow state authorities to weigh Laster’s application for Virginia’s Community Corrections Alternative Program, a residential regimen for chronic drug users.
As the shackled Laster listened, prosecutor Shannon Pollock recounted what happened May 22 at the Sentara Martha Jefferson facility on Proffitt Road. Pollock said that Laster approached a vehicle belonging to Mary J. Perkins and demanded a ride to Greene County, where Laster resides. Told that the driver wasn’t going that way, things escalated.
"Ms. Laster pushes Ms. Perkins and climbs in the driver’s seat," said Pollock, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney.
Pollock said that Laster slammed the car into reverse and knocked Perkins to ground with the driver’s side door, an action that tore her skin, broke her bones and left her seriously injured.
"This was a very serious offense for a first felony," said Pollock, who was asked about Laster’s prior misdemeanor convictions.
Court records show that Laster has been convicted of damaging a telephone line to hinder law enforcement and of failing to report an accident as well as a parole violation and four instances of contempt of court.
Pollock said that her office agreed to amend the carjacking and other charges to two felony counts, grand larceny and unlawful wounding, and one misdemeanor, leaving the scene of a wreck, in order to qualify Laster for the Community Corrections Alternative Program.
A police report indicates that after striking Perkins that day, Laster drove over multiple curbs and an embankment and struck a tree. Her lawyer contended that it was not malevolence that caused this behavior.
"On the day that this happened, she had been in crisis," said Parker, an attorney with the office of the public defender. "She had not had a good experience at Martha Jefferson."
Laster’s roommate, a man named Tracy Franklin, elaborated on the situation after Thursday’s hearing. He said he called 911 and urged providers to take Laster to University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, which he said offers better substance-abuse services than Martha Jefferson.
"I personally blame Martha Jefferson," Franklin told The Daily Progress.
Franklin contends that Martha Jefferson failed to ensure that Laster got a ride home and that, suffering from heroin withdrawal, she panicked after two taxis failed to show.
"If they had come, we wouldn’t be here today," said Franklin. "She didn’t plan this."
Franklin said the plea deal’s emphasis on treatment is a fair outcome, even though it includes three years and three months behind bars.
"She’s very fortunate," said Franklin. "It’s a blessing, because her life cannot go down that road, and she’s had a complete turnaround to getting her life straight."
But the 78-year-old woman injured in the incident has a different view of the punishment for Laster.
"I don’t think the time she got is enough," Perkins told The Daily Progress the day after the hearing.
Perkins said she suffered a head laceration, broken toes, broken ribs, a broken ankle and a wound below her right knee that peeled back the skin and later developed a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection.
"My life for the last five months has been pure hell," said Perkins. "And I still can’t walk."
Perkins said she has had to relocate to the home of her niece who helps her get into a wheelchair and guides her to the bathroom. She recounted multiple hospital and rehabilitation stays, beginning with the trauma center at UVa Medical Center.
The terror of that May day remains.
"I remember screaming for help," said Perkins. "She left me laying in the parking lot and didn’t care if I lived or died."
Laster’s sentence will be formalized at a hearing on Feb. 14.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com