A Covington man charged with the 2009 death of a 6-year-old pedestrian in Clarkston will serve 30 days in jail according to a plea agreement reached with the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
- Gregory Armwood /AJC
Gregory Armwood was sentenced on a misdemeanor count of vehicular homicide in DeKalb State Court after he admitted to illegally passing a stopped MARTA bus and striking and killing Suk Maya Mager, who was crossing Ponce de Leon Avenue with her family, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reported on Wednesday.
The family was shifted to Atlanta from Timai camp in Nepal less than two weeks before the ill-fated incident of August 12, 2009. The child was starting school the next day. (Also Read this )
In addition to the 30 days in jail, Armwood will also serve probation for a year and have his driver’s license suspended during that time, added AJC.
Armwood, who had passed on a double line, was ticketed and released. After the girl died, he turned himself in to face charges of vehicular homicide and failure to exercise due care.
During his plea, Armwood turned from the judge to face the Mager family and express his remorse, according to the report.
“It’s something I have to live with for the rest of my life,” said Armwood, a Desert Storm and Desert Shield Army veteran who works in security. “I have asked God for forgiveness and I ask that someday you also can forgive me,” the AJC wrote.
The report quoted the mother of the girl, Rupa Mager, as saying to the court, “I cried a lot over missing my daughter; still I am crying.” While, father Moti Mager expressed, “I request only to the government that justice be provided me.”
The report further said that the family did not comment on the plea arrangement. Assistant solicitor general Philip Catalano said the deal acknowledged the crash was an accident and not intentional or the result of impaired driving.
I don’t think anyone should call this guy a “child killer.” This was an accident and the court seems to have recognized it as such. Such headlines are inflammatory and run the risk of alienating communities.
Those of us who drive know accidents happen even though we don’t get up one morning and start work with the intention to run over someone. Give him a break – he expressed remorse, is serving a sentence and is losing his livelihood. This does not bring the little girl back, but neither do such unwarranted headlines.
I agree with “bhotangey” and “acharya”. It was a great tragedy. Not long ago, a father run over his own child while backing out his car. Child died. Father was arrested by Police, but later, was released after being found innocent.
I think some of Bhutan News Service editors, need to take some courses in “Journalism”, and “English as secondary language”. Comments posted here on Bhutan News Service, by readers, are normally, never edited or checked for grammer and spelling mistakes. It appears that the editors never bother with checking comments before posting them.
Mr. Shahid M. Pasha, Massachusetts, USA.