Meet 21 year-old Jessica McKay - a homicide waiting to happen!
According to the criminal complaint against her, McKay blew through a red light at 1st and National in Mlwaukee last Sunday evening. In the process, she allegedly hit and killed 25 year old Melissa Ahrens (who had the misfortune of crossing the street in McKay's path).
After striking Ahrens, McKay drove off. When she was finally stopped, police noticed that her car was damaged and that Ahrens' purse was still hanging from the grill of McKay's car. McKay's blood alcohol level was allegedly .21 (over 2 1/2 times the legal limit).
Not surprisingly, this was not McKay's first time at the rodeo. On May 24, 2007 (at the age of 20), she was convicted of first offense drunk driving in Waukesha. The very next day (May 25, 2007), she was arrested in Dodge County and again charged with drunk driving! She was convicted of this second offense on July 30, 2007.
Two drunk driving convictions before she was old enough to legally drink. Pretty impressive!
For the second drunk driving conviction, she received a sentence of 120 days in the County Jail with work release privileges. Her drivers license was also revoked for 36 months and an ignition interlock was supposed to be placed on any car that she operated for the same period of time.
Why someone with a revoked license should be allowed to drive - ignition interlock system notwithstanding - is, of course, a great question?
In any event, nothing the court system did stopped McKay from getting herself blind drunk, getting behind the wheel of a car and killing Melissa Ahrens. Frankly, short of warehousing McKay, I'm not certain that there is anything that anyone could have done which would prevented this outcome.
Of course, I suppose there is one person who could have prevented this from happening - Jessica McKay herself! Now, for failing to exercise self-control, she'll undoubtedly spend a good portion of her life behind bars. Melissa Ahrens will, of course, not see another sunrise.
I wish I had an answer to this - but I really don't. Hopefully some people will remember this case before they make the decision to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking too much. Probably not though.
Meet Jessica McKay - a homicide waiting to happen.
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