SLO County woman avoids prison time for DUI crash that injured four college students
An Atascadero woman was sentenced to nearly a year in San Luis Obispo County Jail Thursday for crashing into a car filled with college students on Highway 101 in August, injuring four people, including one person who was in a medically induced coma for a week.
Allise Jalen Jeffries, 22, was sentenced Thursday to 364 days in the jail after a judge rejected a recommendation by the District Attorney’s Office that she serve time in state prison.
She faced a maximum sentence of nine years in prison.
Jeffries was driving southbound on Highway 101 in Arroyo Grande at about 10 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2019, when she crashed her vehicle into a car carrying four young men, all of whom where injured in the crash.
According to a Probation Department report, one of the men suffered major injuries, and a District Attorney’s Office spokesman said the man was put in a medically induced coma for a week and will likely suffer permanent neurological damage.
Jeffries, along with a dog in her vehicle, was not significantly injured in the crash.
Court records say Jeffries had a blood alcohol content of 0.20, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
In an interview with a probation officer, Jeffries said that she remembered drinking alcohol at home, and “the next thing she knew, she was in the back of the police vehicle with no memory of how she got there.”
During the interview, Jeffries said she couldn’t put into words how sorry she was about causing the crash.
“I never meant for anything like that to happen,” she said, according to the report. “Impacting the lives of four innocent people is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. I’m going to do anything in my power to make it up to them and to get the help that I need.”
Jeffries faced a maximum of nine years in state prison, according to the DA’s Office. Prosecutors sought a prison sentence, while Jeffries’ defense argued for probation.
After weighing the arguments at her sentencing hearing Thursday, Superior Court Judge Jesse Marino agreed with a recommendation by the Probation Department to sentence her to a mix of County Jail and probation time.
She had been in jail custody since the crash in lieu of $100,000 bail and was given time-served credit for 141 days and good conduct credit for another 140 days.
Including automatic credits, Jeffries is likely to be released from jail in about a month.
She will be on formal probation for five years, with a requirement that she not drink any alcohol during that time, and may be responsible for restitution.
The conviction will count as a violent crime and a “strike” under California’s Three Strikes law.
A restitution hearing has been scheduled for April.
Correction: A previous version of the photograph accompanying this article incorrectly described the nature of the crash, which resulted in four people being injured.
This story was originally published January 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
