By Joe Gerrety
jgerrety@journalandcourier.com

FOWLER -- A pattern of lying and belligerence by a woman who admitted driving drunk and causing a fatal crash led a judge to reject the defendant's claim of remorse Wednesday.

"I don't believe it. I don't believe it's there," Judge Rex Kepner of Benton Circuit Court said before sentencing Amber N. Scearcy, 26, to 12 years in prison and two more on community corrections.

It was the maximum sentence permitted under a plea agreement in connection with a Feb. 11 crash on U.S. 41 in Benton County that killed a wrecker operator and injured two teenagers.

"This has affected my life in every way imaginable," said a tearful Kim Fox, whose husband, Harry L. Fox, 38, of Boswell, was killed in the crash.

Fox said telling her young children that their father had died was the hardest thing she's ever done. She said her 3-year-old daughter, not comprehending, watched at the window for her dad to come home for two weeks.

"She'll never know what she's done," Fox said of Scearcy.

She said 14 years of incarceration isn't nearly enough time to atone for the loss the Fox family suffered, but she went along with the plea agreement so the family could try to move on.

As 50 people watched from the gallery, Scearcy, herself a mother of two, apologized to Fox and the two teenagers she injured.

"I'm very sorry for what I did. I deserve everything that happens," she said. "I'm just sorry that it took taking a life for me to realize it."

Scearcy had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 percent the night of the crash when she veered off the highway. The legal limit to drive in Indiana is 0.08 percent.

Harry Fox was in the process of hoisting a disabled car onto a flatbed wrecker when he was struck and killed.

Daniel Staley, 16, who was behind the wheel of the disabled car, suffered a broken elbow when the car door was torn off.

His friend, Christopher Walker, 17, who was standing in the ditch nearby, also was struck. He suffered a broken arm, nerve damage to his hand, a cracked pelvis and torn ligaments in his knee.

He spent two weeks in an Indianapolis hospital and accumulated $96,000 in medical bills.

Walker's mother testified he was traumatized as he lay in the ditch after the crash, feeling a twitch in his arm and wondering if it was still attached.

After the crash, Scearcy initially told an investigating officer that the car had been driven by a man who fled the scene.

Later, at St. Elizabeth Medical Center, where she was taken for treatment of injuries, she became combative and kicked a nurse in the face.

She is charged with felony battery in Tippecanoe County and is scheduled to enter a plea agreement Monday.

Prosecutor Jud Barce called three western Illinois police officers who testified that Scearcy had been belligerent or untruthful to them during past alcohol-related arrests dating back to 2000.

In addition to the prison time, Scearcy will serve six years on probation, a five-year driver's license suspension and 100 hours of community service.

She has been ordered to pay about $121,000 in restitution to the three victims and their insurers.