Two years after her father’s death, Alyza Morris has trouble forgiving the young woman who was texting at the time of the crash that killed him.
“It’s hard to forgive when for more than two years you have not taken ownership for your actions,” Morris said to Jordan Heath, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to vehicular assault. “We all make mistakes, but it’s imperative that we take responsibility.”
Morris, of Pembroke, said her father and retired Concord teacher, Michael Phelps, had a big heart and would have wanted his family to forgive Heath.
“Perhaps in time, we will find it in our hearts,” she said.
Heath, 25, of Concord faced a judge Tuesday morning in Merrimack County Superior Court, where she stood trial just five months earlier on a more serious charge of negligent homicide. That May trial ended in a hung jury, which led prosecutors to consider a plea deal with Heath as an alternative to a retrial, Assistant Merrimack County Attorney George Waldron said.
“The state, subsequent to trial, polled the jurors and it seems the issues they struggled with were going to be present in the second trial, as well, and given the nature of their concerns, it seemed the most appropriate way to handle this case,” he told the court.
Heath pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of vehicular assault instead of a felony count of negligent homicide, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 3½ to seven years. As part of the plea deal, she admitted to texting at the time of the accident.
The lower level charge carries a maximum sentence of 12 months in jail, but Heath will avoid incarceration altogether if she remains on good behavior for three years. She received a suspended one-year sentence, will serve two years probation and will lose her license for five years.
Judge Brian Tucker also ordered Heath to produce a public service announcement in the next six months about the dangers of distracted driving. That educational video will be filmed by Concord TV and shared with the city’s high school students.
Waldron said the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office will approve the video, which will also include statements from the Phelps family.
For the first time in court Tuesday, Heath did not dispute evidence that she blew a red light at a busy intersection in Allenstown on June 30, 2014, because she was distracted by her cell phone. She previously argued that the Ford Focus had a mechanical failure, and that she was reaching for a cigarette.
Phelps, of Allenstown, was traveling east on a Honda VTX motorcycle when the collision occurred about 8 a.m. He suffered life-threatening injuries when he was thrown from the bike. He later died at Concord Hospital.
Family members say he was on his way to the Payson Center at Concord Hospital, where he volunteered every Monday.
Heath told the court Tuesday that she had not prepared a statement but wanted to offer the Phelps family her “heartfelt apologies.”
“I certainly regret my actions that day,” she said. Phelps’s teaching career spanned 35 years at Rundlett Middle School and Concord High. He was 66 at the time of the crash and a recent prostate cancer survivor. He was married to his wife, Alice Normandin Phelps, for 45 years.
“There’s no reversing the emotional damage and the everlasting heartbreak she caused when she took our loving, smart and funny husband, father, brother, uncle and Grampy,” said Morris, one of three Phelps children, in her victim impact statement.
“Today is a small step toward our forgiveness,” she said. “To hear you admit guilt, brings our family a bit of peace and closure.”
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)