Driver Sentenced for Failing to Help Friend Who Died

A 27-year-old Australian woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail Monday for failing to stop her car and call for help after a drunken passenger stuck her head out a window, hit at least three parked cars and died.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz said it was “a difficult sentencing” because Karen Louise Shaw was not charged with the death.

Shaw, who was in the United States to study tourism, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and no contest to a felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Walmark dismissed an additional charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

He had asked for Shaw to serve one year in County Jail.

Stoltz blamed Shaw’s drinking for “a lack of urgency” after the Feb. 28 accident that killed Karla Barton, 20, of Australia, Shaw’s roommate.

Instead of stopping, Shaw drove home after the accident. After going into her apartment to call authorities, Shaw did not return to her dead friend’s side. Instead, she introduced another passenger in the car to a neighbor so he could borrow clean clothes to replace his shirt and pants, which had become soaked with Barton’s blood.

“I do think a sober person would have been in a high state of urgency,” the judge said.

Prosecutors said Shaw should have stopped immediately and sought help for Barton, whom she met at work at Brendan Tours.

But her attorney, Harland W. Braun, argued that Shaw did the right thing by driving the nearly two miles home to call 911.

“She acted reasonably in going home. She acted reasonably in calling 911,” Braun told the court. “There was no other assistance she could have rendered.”

Shaw and the other passenger, Jason Hinchliff, both testified Monday that they were unaware of the seriousness of Barton’s injuries until they got to Shaw’s apartment in the 6200 block of Reseda Boulevard and called for help.

Shaw wept as she recalled that night.

When they got home and got Barton out of the car, “I checked for a pulse and I could not find one, and I had no idea what to do,” she testified.

Barton died at the scene, and Shaw was arrested and jailed for three days.

Shaw said she was driving home from Casey’s Tavern in Canoga Park after midnight with Barton in the back and Hinchliff asleep in the front seat.

Barton apparently was ill, lawyers agree, and stuck her head out of the front passenger window. The car was traveling on Victory Boulevard near Corbin Avenue.

“The next thing I knew, I heard at least three loud thuds,” Shaw told authorities.

Police said Shaw sideswiped several parked cars.

In a statement, Shaw said, “I do not know the extent that I contributed to the death of my friend, only that I will have to live with this tragedy for the rest of my life.”

She had asked the court to be allowed to return to Australia because her work visa expires Friday.

Barton’s parents also sought leniency in a letter to the court.

“Even though Karen has broken the law by driving under the influence,” Helen and Kelvin Barton wrote, “her possible contribution to society would be more productive spent out of the prison system.”