Grants Pass woman pleads to 22 charges in DUII crashes - News - MailTribune.com - Medford, OR

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Grants Pass woman pleads to 22 charges in DUII crashes Monday Oct 24, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Troy Shinn of the Grants Pass Daily Courier Breanna White pleaded guilty Friday to all charges for two drunken-driving crashes barely one week apart last year, the second of which claimed the life of a teenage passenger and injured several others. A sentencing date was set for Thursday. White faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Josephine County Circuit Judge Thomas Hull accepted the 23-year-old Grants Pass woman's pleas after reading through all 22 counts against her, including first-degree manslaughter, assault, driving under the influence of intoxicants, and furnishing alcohol to minors. Her case was set to go to trial Tuesday, but the guilty pleas waived that right. Several Grants Pass police officers and sheriff's deputies were present at the plea hearing to provide extra security for the high-profile case. Defense attorney Justin Rosas reported being spat at by audience members. Several of the victims and witnesses were also present, but none made any speeches or disrupted the proceedings. The room buzzed with chatter but fell silent when White, wearing a gray- and white-striped jail jumpsuit, was brought in. "Unfortunately we have met in this setting before," Hull said to the defendant. "And I'll now read all the charges in full before we enter your pleas. Unfortunately this will take a while." According to prosecutors, White was behind the wheel of a Subaru that crashed into a fence on Leonard Road on the night of Aug. 6, 2015. All three passengers — one was a minor — were injured. Investigators later concluded that White fled the scene and told the injured passengers not to notify law enforcement. Prosecutors alleged she had been drinking. White was on probation at the time for previous crimes, including a 2014 DUII arrest at Riverside Park. Nine days later, on the night of Aug. 15, it happened again. Authorities said White was driving an Isuzu SUV on Gunnell Road, west of Grants Pass, when the vehicle left the road and rolled several times before coming to rest on its top. White and four of the five passengers, all teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 17, were ejected from the vehicle. One of them, 15-year-old Aryen Chambers, died from her injuries. The investigation found that White and the girls had been partying at nearby Matson County Park along the banks of the Rogue River. White, then 22, had again furnished alcohol to minors in the vehicle and was driving while suspended. "Do you admit that these facts are true and correct?" Hull asked White at the plea hearing. After a long pause, White looked down at her hands before quietly replying, "Yes." Hull accepted her guilty pleas, which were submitted without any conditions. She faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction. White hugged her attorney before being cuffed by deputies and taken back to jail. The crash was just the latest in a long string of sometimes headline-making mayhem involving White. Her troubled past includes an October 2014 incident in which a 16-year-old boy in a vehicle driven by White was struck in the head and nearly killed by a flying baseball bat being used by another passenger to bash mailboxes. She also was convicted of disorderly conduct for participating in a brawl during a downtown First Friday event in September 2014 in which a man was cornered and pummeled outside the Dutch Bros. Coffee House at Sixth and D streets. While awaiting trial in the latest case, she was convicted of conspiring with a fellow inmate to have her grandmother's home robbed to raise bail money. In July she was sentenced to 15 months in prison in that case. Last month White's trouble continued anew when she was charged with allegedly sexually abusing Chambers and another girl prior to the rollover, but that case was not addressed at the plea hearing. Whether her time in the bail money case will be added to the Thursday sentencing remains to be seen. White's sentencing date is scheduled for 9 a.m. Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Turner said that victims of the crash are prepared to speak at the sentencing. Reach reporter Troy Shinn at 541-474-3806 or [email protected].