Raleigh Woman Sentenced For Fatal Crash

A woman from Raleigh has been sentenced to at least 12 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a drunken driving crash in April 2008 in which a father and son died of the personal injuries the suffered.

On the morning of June 1, 43-year-old Christine Haithcock Meyers apologized in a courtroom in Wake County for colliding head-on with a car driven by Ruben Medina in Raleigh.

Medina and his 10-year-old son, Jefferson Medina, both died in the crash.

Jefferson was a third-grade student at Rolesville Elementary School and had spent the day planting a garden with his family.

Medina’s 4-year-old daughter, Tiffany Medina, was also a passenger in the vehicle. She suffered a broken arm, but survived the collision.

At the time of the April 1, 2008 crash, Meyers had a pending DUI charge. On November 2007, she was arrested for DUI in Johnston County.

Meyers told North Carolina Highway Patrol troopers that prior to the April crash, she had taken a sleeping pill in the afternoon and later drank three Icehouse beers. Troopers searched her vehicle after the collision and discovered two bottles of sleeping pills and an Icehouse beer that was still cool to the touch, according to Wake assistant district attorney Jeff Cruden, who estimated Meyers’ blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash to be 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08.