Cape Girardeau woman pleads guilty to manslaughter

Choking back tears, Angelia Hanson pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, telling a judge she didn't want to put anybody else through any more pain after she ran over her longtime girlfriend while backing out of her driveway July 19.

Hanson, 30, told Judge William Syler she didn't realize 43-year-old Jody Lane was behind the Dodge Durango she was driving when she backed out of the driveway of their home at 612 N. Fountain St.

"I had got into the vehicle after a short, um, argument with my girlfriend. We were together five years. I backed out of the driveway," unaware that Lane was behind the vehicle, Hanson said in court Monday.

Hanson pulled out, then drove forward before realizing she had hit Lane.

"I ran over her, and --" Hanson paused, struggling to maintain her composure, before continuing. "When I pulled forward, I seen her in the rearview, and I ... held her until she died."

Assistant prosecuting attorney Jack Koester said Lane became trapped in the undercarriage of the vehicle, which ran over her twice, causing fatal internal bleeding.

During a preliminary hearing in August, officer David Valentine of the Cape Girardeau Police Department testified Hanson

had told him she and Lane had overslept and were arguing because they were running late.

Valentine said Hanson told him Lane had said she was going back into the house, so she didn't realize Lane was behind the vehicle when she backed out.

"She told me she thought she'd run over the curb," Valentine said at the preliminary hearing.

Hanson, who has pleaded guilty in the past to driving while intoxicated, drug possession and driving without a valid license, initially was charged as a prior and persistent offender, but Koester dropped that language in exchange for her guilty plea.

With the "prior and persistent" language, Hanson could have faced five to 15 years in prison on the manslaughter charge; without it, she faces up to seven years for the Class C felony.

Koester told Syler he was recommending Hanson receive the full seven-year sentence.

Syler ordered a sentencing assessment report and set sentencing for Nov. 18.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

612 N. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

100 Court St., Jackson, Mo.