WHIDBEY ISLAND — Karen Gervais Boone was headed home to her husband and two children.
She couldn’t have known she was in the path of a drunken driver. Gervais Boone likely didn’t even see the oncoming Dodge Durango until the last moment when a driver in front of her swerved off the road to avoid being hit by the Durango.
Gervais Boone, 47, never made it home that night in January 2007.
She didn’t get to kiss her husband goodbye or tuck her children in one last time. Her parents never got another chance to hug their daughter, remembering the first time they held her in their arms.
Instead, the Whidbey Island woman died, alone, in a tangle of metal and glass on a dark road.
A stranger decided to drink alcohol and drive. It was a decision the driver had made at least twice before, court records show.
On Friday, Randi Shelton was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for the crash that killed Gervais Boone. She was taken away in handcuffs. Shelton, 36, pleaded guilty in May to vehicular homicide. The mother of two had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit at the time of the fatal crash.
Gervais Boone’s family asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence.
“She should spend life in prison. If she used an AK-47 and shot my daughter to death, she’d spend her life in prison. Instead, she used a car to kill my daughter. I want the maximum,” Jim Gervais said before the hearing.
Gervais, 76, said his daughter’s death was senseless. Shelton caused his family more pain than she’ll ever understand, all because she made the worst kind of decision, he said. Gervais Boone left behind a son, 15, and a daughter, 10. The community lost an advocate for education.
“Drunkenness is a disease,” he said. “Driving while drunk isn’t a disease. It’s stupid.”
Shelton was barrelling down Highway 525, a main arterial on Whidbey Island, illegally passing cars, court documents show. Other drivers called 911. One witness told the dispatcher, “they’re gonna kill somebody.”
Just north of Freeland, a man behind the wheel of a van was forced to swerve to the shoulder to avoid a head-on crash with the Durango Shelton was driving. The sport utility vehicle glanced off the van.
Gervais Boone was behind the van. Her view of Shelton’s vehicle was undoubtedly blocked until the van in front of her veered off the road, Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
The Durango and minivan smashed together with a collective speed calculated at 100 mph, prosecutors said. Gervais Boone was partially ejected.
Neither the seatbelt nor airbag saved her. Fortunately, she had “a mercifully instant death,” Banks wrote.
Banks urged the judge to sentence Shelton to the high end of the standard range, sending a message to others that drunken driving won’t be tolerated. He pointed to Shelton’s two prior DUI convictions in Oregon as evidence she hadn’t learned from her mistakes.
Drunken drivers should get more than a wrist slap, Gervais said. He was at home when his son in-law called with heartbreaking news. In an instant, his daughter was gone.
“We have an epidemic of DUIs in the states. Approximately one person a day gets the call I got a year-and-a-half ago. We have a culture that accepts this behavior. That needs to change.”
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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