A horrifying video that was captured following an even more horrifying and tragic DUI-induced car accident shows a female intoxicated driver completely bereft of remorse or acknowledgment of the fact her actions killed two innocent human beings.
Now, this past week, she will be serving a 14-year sentence in prison for her role in the death of an innocent couple and the subsequent indifference to their lost lives.
Unbeknownst to Stephanie Melgoza, she was being recorded by an officer’s body camera during her detainment. In the disturbing video, she can be seen smiling and heard singing. During a brief interaction with the lone officer, she is willfully oblivious to her predicament and repeatedly asks when she will get her car back to go to class.
“You want me to be honest with you. You’re going to jail. You don’t have a bond. You killed two people tonight. I don’t think you understand that,” East Peoria Police Officer Jeffrey Bieber informed the clueless woman, who was waiting in a hospital to be examined and have a blood-alcohol kit brought in to determine her level of intoxication. It was later determined she had a BAC of .264, more than three times the legal limit in Illinois.
Melgoza, 22, who was just weeks away from graduating from Bradley University didn’t react in the slightest to the tone and message of the officer. Instead, she merely stared and then asked when she could return to class.
Clearly frustrated, Bieber shared his honest opinion of her. “You’re on body camera being completely careless about killing two people tonight,” he said. “You could care less. That’s sad and pathetic and horrible all at the same time.”
“Did you understand what I told you, that you killed two people tonight?” Bieber then asked.
“Can you say that as a cop?” the selfish and heartless driver asked. Yes, ma’am, I can,” the officer replied.
Later in the video, Melgoza dances and sings while also talking about an upcoming trip she had planned for her birthday. “It’s going to be so fun,” she gushed. “I’m going to start off with two Long Islands…There is no limit in Vegas, right?” she continues to tell the officer.
It is difficult for normal people to imagine the depravity and complete indifference to the loss of human life, so here is the video to see it for yourself. Take a look below:
“Every parent should show their kids this video. This young lady — 4 weeks from college graduation — killed 2 people. This is what drunk driving can do,” wrote Michelle Tafoya in the caption.
The two victims were identified as Paul Prowant, 55, and his girlfriend, 43-year-old Andrea Rosewicz.
Fox also described part of the initial encounter law enforcement had with Melgoza, who was said to have “watched with emotion” the efforts of other first responders to resuscitate the victims, writing:
Officers who responded to the gruesome scene found her red Dodge Dart totaled with a severed leg “sticking out of the grill,” a police report says.
Melgoza watched without emotion as first responders vainly tried to resuscitate the victims.
She told officers that she had downed three vodka drinks and had been “just getting her night started” when she hit the victims outside Full Throttle.
She is said to have at least shown some remorse at her sentencing, according to reports. “I’m so sorry for everything, and I will never, ever commit anything like that again. I have not drank since that day. I do not plan on drinking ever again.”
Featured image: East Peoria Police Department
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