Betty Jo Tagerson accidentally drove her car onto the lawn of the Rossman family where triplet sisters were playing in the yard. Tagerson killed one and critically injured another. Now, she has been sentenced. INSIDE EDITION has all the details.
A set of triplets are at the center of a road-rage tragedy. Five-year-old Delaney Rossman was killed when a driver lost control and crashed into the yard where the three sisters were playing.
The two surviving triplets testified at the driver's manslaughter trial.
In court lawyers asked Isabella Rossman, "How many sisters do you have?"
Isabella responded, "Now I have two. I used to have three"
Her sister Gabrielle was also badly hurt in the crash and was in a medically induced coma before she recovered. She gave a little wave to the prosecutor as she took the stand at the trial and recalled the moments before the deadly crash.
"We were playing tag and making sandcastles," said Gabrielle.
The driver, Betty Jo Tagerson, was convicted in January. Once a book-keeper in a doctor's office near Tampa, Florida, she appeared at her sentencing this week using a walker and dressed in orange prison stripes, her uniform stamped with the word "Inmate" on the back.
Tagerson's daughter, Jessica, asked the judge for mercy.
"This was really a tragic accident," said Jessica.
Then Tagerson herself made a similar plea.
"I've been imprisoned in my own hell. The feelings of regret and sadness have haunted me," said Betty Jo.
She left the stand, using the walker, although any limp was barely noticeable.
Tagerson crossed paths with the dead girl's mother, Danielle Malm. Malm asked the judge to give her daughter's killer the maximum, 25 years.
"She will get to see her children live their lives. I'll never get to see my daughter grow up," said Malm.
Before passing sentence, the judge addressed the grieving mother.
"I am sure that there is nothing that I could say that in the end, will lighten your load," said Judge Michael F. Andrews.
He then sentenced Tagerson to 13 years in prison and told her, "There's a permanent revocation of your driving privileges. You cannot drive again."
A heartbreaking final chapter to the tragedy of the three little angels.