A driver who was distracted as she texted on her cellphone was suitably blameworthy for criminally negligent homicide when she fatally ran over a woman who was mowing her lawn, an appeals court decided.
Contrary to defendant Deana Olsen’s contentions, her actions evinced the “kind of ‘serious blameworthy’ carelessness whose ‘seriousness would be apparent to anyone who shares the community’s general sense of right and wrong,’” the Appellate Division, Third Department, panel said, quoting People v. Boutin, 75 NY2d 692 (1990).
