A 36-year-old North Little Rock woman has been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a friend in a drunken-driving crash.
Miranda Leshet Duncan was driving 105 mph when she ran off the road in the 7200 block of Arch Street in Little Rock in November 2017.
Her 2006 white Ford Crown Victoria then struck a culvert, flew into the air and hit a tree, according to an arrest report by police officer Kyle Henson.
Passenger Joshua Barbee, 33, was killed while Duncan was thrown from the vehicle and seriously injured.
A urine sample taken from Duncan at the hospital tested positive for PCP, cocaine, the sedative promethazine, anti-anxiety medication citalopram, marijuana and alcohol.
In a February letter to the presiding judge, Herb Wright, Duncan blamed Barbee for the crash, stating that the North Little Rock man "pulled my steering wheel."
"Evidence should show his fingerprints on my steering wheel," she wrote. "The deceased person caused the accident. If I had known he would grab my steering wheel, I wouldn't have given a ride to him."
Duncan also wrote that she was in a coma for seven days after the crash and came close to dying herself.
Court filings show that Duncan's insurance provider, Vision Insurance, subsequently paid a $25,000 settlement to Barbee's mother, Vickie Barbee, and his two sisters, Taneisha Jarrett and Victoria Thomas. The women divided a 65 percent share of the money, $16,250, while the remaining $8,750 went to the law firm -- Rainwater, Holt and Sexton -- that negotiated the settlement.
Duncan has been jailed since her September arrest. Sentencing papers filed on Monday by deputy prosecutor Christy Bjornson show Duncan pleaded no contest to negligent homicide on March 6.
Under the arrangement negotiated by her attorney, Duncan will serve a two-year suspended sentence after she's released from prison. Duncan received a concurrent six-year sentence for stealing and vandalizing a 2011 Cadillac belonging to Arbeck Williams Jr. of Maumelle about four months after the fatal crash. She pleaded guilty to felony theft and misdemeanor criminal mischief in that case.
Metro on 03/19/2019