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Melissa Madson was sentenced to four years in prison, restitution, and license suspension.
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Woman sentenced to prison in fatal crash

Woman sentenced to prison in fatal crash

Drunken driver struck motorcyclist in 2015

An Oregon woman who was intoxicated when she struck and killed a motorcyclist last summer was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

Melissa Madson, 26, of the 2600 block of Eastvale Avenue, pleaded guilty June 30 to aggravated vehicular homicide for causing the June 26, 2015, death of Mark Grover, 60, of Sylvania.

Madson was westbound on West Laskey Road just before 2 a.m. when she turned left onto Adella Atreet and struck Mr. Grover’s eastbound motorcycle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ian English said he doubted Madson would ever drink and drive again, but he could not overlook that she did it on that night with fatal results.

“A man is dead. His life is lost. His family is shattered,” the judge said. “... It is my sincerest belief that we all need to know — every single person in this community, in this country — that if you drink and get behind the wheel and, Lord forgive us all, take the life of another person, the punishment is going to be severe.”

In addition to prison, Judge English suspended Madson’s driver’s license for 10 years and ordered her to pay $5,500 in restitution to the victim’s family for his funeral expenses.

Madson’s attorney, Jane Roman, asked the court to put Madson on community control, saying, “Ms. Madson is not an evil person. She made a terrible, terrible decision that morning.”

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Madson, a certified pharmacy technician and mother of an 8-year-old daughter, tearfully apologized to the victim’s wife.

“I was horrified. I wanted to reach out to you right away and just hug you and tell you it was all just an accident, and I didn’t see him coming,” she said. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

Still, Lynn Grover told the court Madson did not deserve any more compassion than she showed her husband after the crash.

“She was only thinking of herself that night,” Mrs. Grover said. “She never even went over to Mark’s body to see if there was anything she could do to help him.”

The Grovers’ son, Casey, wrote a letter to the court which was read by his aunt. He said Madson’s decision to drink and drive made his mother a widow after 41 years of marriage.

“That is the crime most paramount in this case: the theft of a life, the ultimate larceny,” he said.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.

First Published September 2, 2016, 4:00 a.m.

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Melissa Madson was sentenced to four years in prison, restitution, and license suspension.
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