Woman sentenced for deadly crash that killed young mother

YORK CO. — Cassie Cunningham, 36, stood before a judge Monday dressed in prison orange, her face streaked with tears.

"There are no words to convey the sorrow and anguish I feel," she said as she pleaded guilty to felony DUI involving death.

Woman charged with DUI after deadly Rock Hill crash

Troopers said she was driving 107 mph when she rear-ended 22-year-old Kristen Knight on Celanese Road in Rock Hill in February. Cunningham was driving a full-size GMC Yukon SUV. Knight was in a small Kia Rio. The impact was devastating.

Witnesses said Cunningham floored the gas pedal in her SUV, racing toward the intersection at Hilltop Road, where Knight had just pulled out. The violent collision pushed Knight's car more than 500 feet down the road.

It was a busy Monday afternoon on Rock Hill's busiest road, and rush hour traffic was backed up for hours after the crash.

Cunningham registered a .20 blood-alcohol level in a breath test. A blood test later showed a level of .24. She was also high on marijuana at the time.

Solicitor Kevin Brackett called the case extreme.

"Everything here is extreme. The speed Cassie Cunningham was driving, her level of intoxication at the time, the damage to the car, and the damage to Kristen Knight," he said.
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Assistant solicitor Willy Thompson said Knight suffered a broken neck, a severed aorta and two punctured lungs. Her death would have been immediate.

If her two children, ages five and two at the time, would have been in the car, there's no doubt they would have died, Thompson said.

Knight's mother, Donna Aaron, said in court Monday that she had hate in her heart that she thought would kill her after the accident, but she knew she couldn't hold onto it.

"It's imperative for our own healing that we release the past and forgive everyone. That's what I have to do," Aaron said.

Mother of drunken driving victim plans to fight for justice

Even more devastating for both families is that Cunningham later learned that she knew Knight. Her family had worked in a daycare when Knight was little, even taking her to vacation bible school. Cunningham had taught her there.

"I prayed with her," she said.

Cunningham said she has little memory of the crash, or how fast she was going that day.

"It appalled me when I found out how fast I was driving that vehicle. It was not a choice I would have consciously made," she said.

However, prosecutors pointed out that she had a prior DUI conviction in 2008, and three speeding convictions.

"Those were mistakes she could have learned something from, and didn't," Brackett said.

Cunningham's defense attorney, Jim Boyd, said he wasn't making excuses for his client, but told the judge how Cunningham was sexually abused as a child, and was introduced to drugs, including cocaine, at an early age. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and has suffered in an abusive marriage as well, he told the judge.

In sentencing her to 23 out of a possible 25 years, the judge said he couldn't ignore Cunningham's record, or the fact that she managed to drive that fast on a road like Celanese in the middle of the day.

WSOC