KIRKLAND, Wash. — It was the first time Kelly Ann Hudson had said publicly what her victims' family said they longed to hear. That she regretted the accident that took so much from so many.
"I understand that there's no apology that I say that will bring Joyce Parsons back," said Hudson. "Or undo the loss and the pain and the suffering."
Hudson pleaded guilty in September to getting behind the wheel of her van, drunk and on prescription drugs, then slamming into a car with four people inside in August 2012. Eighty-one-year-old Joyce Parsons of Kirkland died at the scene. Her brother Arthur Kamm, also of Kirkland, suffered 82 fractures; their cousins were badly hurt, too. Hudson asked the judge for lenience.
"I want you to understand that I am forever feeling the loss and the pain I have caused this family," Hudson said.
But King County Superior Court Judge Timothy Bradshaw said Hudson's crime deserved a stiff punishment.
"The fact is, this could have easily been a mass homicide," said Bradshaw.
With that, he sentenced her to 130 months in prison, near the top of the sentencing range. Afterwards, we asked Arthur Kamm's son, Tom, if he believed Hudson's apology was sincere.
"No, I don't think that," he said.
Neither did his cousin Keith Parsons, the son of the woman she killed.
"I think she's sorry she's going to jail for almost 11 years," said Parsons.
If Kelly Ann Hudson serves her entire sentence, she will be nearly 60 when she gets out.
But she will still be 20 years younger than the woman she killed.
KIRO
