It’s got to be a difficult holiday season for Brandi Cox Roberts and her family members. It will never be the same again, ever.
She has been sentenced for “up to” 15 years in prison because she took drugs and then drove her car. She took drugs and then let her 2 year old son Christian sit on the lap of a 13 year old in the passenger seat of the car. She took drugs and then hit a deer as she was driving, at which time the air bag deployed, killing her 2 year old son. She took drugs and failed to fasten her son into his car seat in the back seat of the vehicle which is the law, and is only common sense.
Sanpete County Attorney Brody Keisel said that there was very little damage to the vehicle and the teen only suffered some minor injuries. If Brandi Cox Roberts hadn’t been on drugs, she would probably have been thinking correctly, and even if her 2 year old was grumpy and crying, would still have transported him safely, all the more so because her own reasoning abilities and reflexes might have been just enough improved that she could have avoided hitting the deer. But even if she hit the deer, Christian would have survived okay if he was not on someone’s lap in the front seat next to an air bag.
Ms. Roberts’ attorney asked Judge Marvin Bagley of the 6th District Court to please sentence her to jail so that she could enter a treatment program. "What she needs the most is in-patient treatment and counseling to deal with losing a child," defense attorney Stephen R. Allred said. "The worst thing is she carries around the guilt of having basically caused the death of her child. ... Not a day goes by that she doesn’t think about that."
One can hope that her decision from that day will have some value by serving as a warning to others. In a matter of minutes one’s entire life can be changed by an accident and a death.
