BOISE -- As he prepared to hand down a sentence Wednesday, Judge Richard Greenwood spoke of the terrifying gamble of "DUI roulette."
Sometimes, people who get behind the wheel drunk or high make it home safely. Sometimes they swerve across lanes without incident. They hit a tree, scrape a car, jump a curb, and no one gets hurt.
But sometimes they are Darrell Jackson.
Jackson, 58, was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in prison for felony vehicular manslaughter in the Oct. 1 death of 33-year-old Menite Milien.
The Boise woman was walking on the sidewalk near Maple Grove Road and Brookview Drive when Jackson's pickup hit her. She was killed instantly.
Carolle Milien, Menite's mother, spoke of the shock of having Boise Police officers knock on her door after the crash.
When they asked about her daughter, Carolle wondered if Menite was in some sort of trouble. But the news was worse.
"They say, 'you know, she got killed on the sidewalk, when she was walking on the sidewalk she got hit by a car," Carolle recounted.
Family mourns Menite Milien of Boise
Natacha Eddington, the victim's sister, told the judge that she still can't pass the spot where her sister was hit without feeling the unfairness of it all welling up.
"Every time I drive by the site where she was killed, it gives me tears of anger," she said, before turning her attention to the defendant.
"Why did you do it?" she asked Jackson. "Why did it have to be her?"
Menite, who came with her family to the U.S. from Haiti as a child, was described as an avid traveler and fitness enthusiast. She had planned to one day open her own fitness company, Eddington said, a dream that died with her beneath Jackson's pickup.
She added that Menite was devoted to her whole family and was especially beloved by her nieces and nephews, Eddington's children. Their aunt had delighted in taking the children to the park and on bike rides, she said.
The loss has shaken them as well.
"My 8-year-old twins don't want to walk on the sidewalk because they're afraid something like that will happen to them too, like their auntie," Eddington said. "It's supposed to be a safe place to walk."
Investigators say Jackson had mixed the painkiller hydrocodone with Lorazepam, a sedative, before the wreck.
Prosecutor Tessie Buttram said those drugs have a documented risk of causing an a dangerous reaction when taken together. Jackson told officers after the crash that he "fell asleep" or "blacked out" just before the collision.
Although Jackson had not intended to take a life that night, Buttram said, she rejected the idea that Menite's death was an accident.
"Your Honor, he chose," she said. "He made the choice to ingest a toxic cocktail of prescription medications, both those prescribed to him and those illegally obtained."
After Jackson lost consciousness, his pickup continued into the curb, jumping onto the sidewalk. There was no time for Menite to dodge out of its path.
"He was driving on the sidewalk for approximately one second before hitting Menite," Buttram said. "She had no chance."
The prosecutor asked the judge to hand down a 30-year sentence, pointing to Jackson's criminal history and repeated stints in prison and drug rehabilitation programs.
But defense attorney Rodger Fisher argued that penalty was excessive.
"Given my client's age, the state's request is asking for a life sentence," he argued. "They're failing to give my client any chance at rehabilitation."
Fisher disputed some details of this client's criminal history and told argued the amount of hydrocodone Jackson is accused to have taken was overstated. A ten-year prison sentence would be far more appropriate, Fisher said.
"From the beginning, Mr. Jackson has been completely remorseful of his crime and wanting to do what was right by the family and the victim," he said.
In an emotional statement before his sentence was handed down, Jackson said he was tortured by the thought of what he had done.
"I wish I could take back what happened. I wish I could trade places with Menite, but I can't," he said. "I'm just sorry that I took a beautiful soul from this world."
Greenwood said he believed the driver was "genuinely remorseful." But that sorrow does not undo the damage inflicted on Menite's family and the community, he said.
"The family did nothing to deserve this. She did nothing to deserve this," he said. "This is the tragic intersection of doing drugs and driving."
The judge ultimately handed down a 13-year sentence, with three years before Jackson will be eligible for parole. Jackson will also pay more than $9,300 in restitution and have his driver's license suspended for five years after his release from prison.
The tragedy of Menite's death should serve as a reminder to anyone tempted to get into the driver's seat after drinking or using drugs, Greenwood said.
"People are impaired and they drive, and they're playing roulette with their lives and the lives of everyone else on the highway," he said. "And that's what happened here."
