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Last updated on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
(WASHINGTON) - 33-year-old Racheal Riester, of Washington, was sentenced to eight years and court costs on each of two counts stemming from the 2011 hit-and-run death of Washington teenager, Rhett Smith.
On July 1, Riester had entered guilty pleas to causing death when operating a vehicle with a Schedule I or II controlled substance in the blood stream, and failure to stop after an accident resulting in death.
The maximum sentence for each of the two felony counts is eight years. The sentences are to run concurrently.
In handing down the sentence, Superior Court Judge Dean Sobecki also recommended that Riester be placed in the Purposeful Incarceration Program so she could receive treatment for her addictions while serving her sentence.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the case, Riester struck Rhett as he attempted to cross West National Highway near Swifty's just after 11:30 p.m. on July 23, 2011.
Rhett's body was thrown into the air and then dragged under her vehicle. She then left the 17-year-old lying in the street.
She left the scene, ditched the 1994 Oldsmobile she was driving, then had her boyfriend report the car stolen.
Initially, Riester denied driving the car at the time of the accident and told officers her sister sometimes borrowed it. But a witness placed her sister at Walmart at the time of the incident, and eventually Riester's boyfriend admitted Riester had been out in the car.
A blood test on Riester came back positive for benzodiazapines and methamphetamine. She told Washington Police Chief Mike Healy, then the detective on the case, she did the meth the day before the accident and had smoked marijuana after the accident.
She also told Healy she'd been on her cell phone when she struck Smith and that she'd been doing about 60 miles per hour.
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