Case No. FDO0700017 Ashley Oliver                        Judge Archie L Hayman

Written by: Cindy Schabel – the victims mother

4/16/09

6:00 am Easter Sunday

I woke up this morning with the following thoughts.

It’s ironic that Ms. Oliver was given 11 months of freedom before she was arrested and she herself, by her actions, sealed her fate. In choosing to continue to disregard the law, and speeding on the highways, Ms. Oliver was pulled over and ticketed even after killing our son. This is a pattern that she obviously feels is okay to continue in, even while putting others at risk. She wants mercy from the court; however, no mercy is given to those she comes in contact with while driving our roads. She not only willfully got behind the wheel of a vehicle, well over the legal limit; she willfully accelerated to nearly 100 mph the day she crashed into our son. In addition, she terrorized other motorist that day, to the point of having to pull over and call 911. No one deserves to be so afraid of another motorist that they have to pull over and call 911.

While in the hospital, Ms. Oliver was just down the hall from our son. While he was fighting for his life, she was screaming obscenities, demanding attention right now. After causing this crash, having no mercy for other motorists, she is still only concerned for what she wants. It seems that it’s all about Ashley Oliver. I’d like to remind you, your Honor, that you were appalled to hear of her continued destructive behavior on our roads after she caused the crash that took our son’s life. I feel you should be appalled, and so should our community. It can’t be just about her, but indeed the safety of other motorist. Our son died due to her irresponsible behavior, but with enforcement of what the law allows, maybe others will be spared by witnessing the consequences to this type of behavior.

Ms. Oliver was sentenced within what the law allows. She violently took a life and caused fear and terror in other motorist. I believe mercy was given to this offender, who pleaded guilty, in her original sentence of 10-15 years. This kind of behavior on the roads should not be tolerated and sentencing should reflect that. Ms. Oliver pleaded guilty, because she is guilty and needs to serve her time as originally sentenced or possibly a minimum of 15 years.

This was read in court on the re-sentencing of Ashley Oliver because the case was appealed by the State of Michigan Supreme Court.

Ashley Oliver is currently serving her original sentence of 10-15 years.

Defendant: Ashley Oliver

Case number:07-020162-FH

Impact Statement  

Written by Cindy Schabel, the victim’s mother

     Writing an impact statement about the death of our son has been a difficult thing to do. It’s hard to put into words what kind of an “impact” this has been for us. Life has been a struggle in many ways since April 10th, 2006. The loss of our youngest son has been devastating. In the beginning, while Richard was still in the hospital, our thoughts were only on him coming home. I personally, couldn’t listen to the television or radio or anything. All I could do was try and write down what was happening at the hospital with Richard. This helped me get through the day and continue with the hope that he would recover. Later in the week, after seeing his CT scan from the night he was admitted (Monday, April 10th, 2006) to the following Thursday (April 13th, 2006), my hope began to fade. I could see, as the neuro surgeon pointed it out, his brain tissue getting worse as the days went by. Due to not eating well and hardly sleeping, I fainted upon hearing that this could still lead to his death. It was heartbreaking; setting there next to him each day, holding a motionless hand and seeing all the damage that was done to him. He had never been admitted in the hospital or had a broken bone before this. Now, we have to see him lying in a hospital bed broken from head to toe. Richard literally had a broken big toe. His legs were crushed and steal rods replaced his bones. His injuries were extensive. His medical records, for one week, were the size of a JC Penney Catalog. His will to live must have been the only thing that kept him alive for a week. We were praying for a miracle. It was not to be; one week after the crash we were told our son was brain dead. We had no choice but to remove him from life support.

     It was agonizing to see the sorrow in the face of our oldest son, Matt, when he came into the room. It wasn’t made any easier, having to listen to the offender, Ashley Oliver, just a couple doors down, screaming obscenities and demanding attention right now.

     Shortly after the crash occurred, our son Matt and his fiancé, Malynda, told us they were thinking of postponing the wedding. Dan, my husband, with tears in his eyes, asked them not to do that because we didn’t want her to take this from us also. The wedding was only 5 months away.

     My husband and I both had April 17th, 2006 scheduled off for a vacation day; it was our 28th wedding anniversary. What was once the happiest day of our lives became the saddest as our precious son passed away on that day.

     Day to day life after Richard passed is just that; day to day. We wake up every day with Richard on our minds. Another day we can’t see, hear or talk to him. My husband would have night mares of seeing the crash. You see, he did see the crash site and that memory haunts him to this day. I would wake up during the night crying and unable to go back to sleep. I’d write down my thoughts. Sometimes, I’d write to Richard. This helped me get things out during the darkest hours. To this day, I don’t have the desire for golfing, biking, or other interests. I am just not ready to return to college, where I was enrolled in an accounting program. I may never be ready. I have a constant feeling of sadness.

     With Richard’s death, we’ve lost the opportunity to ever have another daughter-in-law or have the ability to spend time with possible grandchildren he might one day bless us with. Richard shared an interest in hunting and fishing with my husband, and he will never be able to share those times with him again.

     We couldn’t believe it when we found out the offender, Ashley Oliver, was going at least 97 miles per hour on Miller Rd in Swartz Creek. That’s over 40 mph over the speed limit. It wasn’t as hard to believe when we found out that prior to killing Richard; Ms Oliver was ticketed on January 3rd, 2006 for 31 mph over the speed limit in the city of Flint. Also, amazing enough, she was ticketed again just 3 months after killing our son on July 10th, 2006. This time she was ticketed for 16-25 mph over the speed limit on the expressway. She obviously has no regard for the law or for the safety of others, as her actions have shown. We don’t believe she is remorseful in the least. We never received as much as a sympathy card from her. Another indication to this was evident when Trooper Troutt went to arrest her. He told us she admitted to consuming a pint of liquor and a couple of beers just before he got there.

     There was more than one person that came up to us and said “if only” I’d done this or that, then maybe Richard would still be here. That may be true, but it could have been any of us – it could be any of us, at anytime. We can’t do anything about the “if only” we heard from those caring people, but we can consider the “if only” that can be addressed in the courts. If only the laws were strict enough to make people stop and think before they drink and drive. If only one person doesn’t drink and drive because they hear about what happened to Ashley Oliver, given the strictest punishment possible, maybe a life will be saved.

     Our son was just leaving work for the day. We all have a right to expect safe travel when we leave work and head home or whatever the destination might be. We have a right to travel down the road in our own lane and not have someone cross the center line at an excessive rate of speed and take away that right. Richard’s rights were taken away in an instant. He was in his lane, not exceeding the speed limit. His judgment and sentence were harsh, as should Ashley Oliver’s sentence be.

Sincerely,

Cindy Schabel

I wrote the following entry shortly after we buried our son. I needed to reflect on what I still couldn’t believe I was living.

4/10/06 Monday ~ It was just another Monday. We finished dinner, Rick wasn’t home yet, and Dan (my husband) was going to run up to the store for a pop. He was gone a little long but he often stopped by the neighbors to chat. When Dan came home, our lives changed forever. He came in the back door, I was sitting at the table, and he said, “Don’t freak out, Rick has been in an accident. We have to get to Hurley hospital.” My heart stopped. I felt the tears roll down my check as I asked if he was going to be all right. My husband said he didn’t know. On the way to the hospital, Dan said he saw the car and it was bad. He wanted me to call Matt (our oldest son). I hated to call Matt, because he just, that day, went to the funeral of a friend who had died from a motorcycle accident the previous Thursday. I called him and my dad. I told my dad not to come to the hospital. I worried about him. I instead asked him to check on the dogs.

When we arrived at the hospital, we went in the main lobby entrance and looked totally confused as to where to go. Someone helped us get back to the ER area. She must have worked there, because she knew of a couple of accidents that night. As we walked back she told us of one where a female driver was going over 90 mph and hit head on with another driver when she crossed the centerline. I said, that couldn’t be him; Rick was on Miller Road in Swartz Creek. When we went to the nurses’ station in the ER, they wanted to put us in a waiting room. I demanded to speak with someone about the condition of our son. She first got a social worker. Not a good sign I thought. Finally, a doctor came out to talk with us. He informed us that Richard was in a very bad accident; but didn’t go into a lot of detail about his injuries. We waited in a waiting room down the hall. I started feeling sick. I couldn’t get enough water. I asked my sister to see if she could find me a cold washcloth. Turns out, I carried that washcloth around for 2 days. It helped keep me from fainting. I instantly was sick to my stomach as well. Waiting was awful. I got a glimpse of them rolling Richard down the hall, to take him to get some tests. I took off after them and caught up with them at the elevator. I told him we were there. He looked so bad; blood was coming out of his ear. Obviously, I was instantly upset.

A doctor finally came to the ER waiting room – probably about 10:30 pm. He went over some of Rick’s injuries; starting from his head and working down. I didn’t get it all down (taking notes); it was pretty extensive and I wasn’t in a very good state. According to my notes: CAT scan showed bruising, brain contusion. Didn’t know how serious these would be. Would have ICP monitor to watch pressure. This injury worried me. He went on to tell us many other injuries. In the coming days more details would show. He said they would be doing surgery in probably 1-½ hours (around midnight) to fix his legs. It turned out he didn’t have surgery until 8:00 am the next morning. The surgeons had to operate on someone else. I suspected it was the driver of the other vehicle. During the night, Rick’s pressure remained pretty good, but still early. My hospital notes will tell a little more on his injuries. I don’t think I ever got it all, because there was so much. The surgery was about 7 hours long. After talking to the doctors and seeing Rick back in his room; we decided to go and try to rest. We haven’t slept since Sunday night. We got a few hours rest.

On Wednesday ~ Rick was doing ok; his pressures remained ok. They were constantly monitoring him. I was constantly shutting off TV’s in the waiting rooms; because I wanted nothing but my thoughts of Richard getting through this and coming home.

When the offender’s mom and aunt came to Richard’s room, I really didn’t want to deal with it. I know they must have been upset; but her daughter was down the hall, able to scream obscenities and breath on her own. The mom wrote her name, address and phone number down and gave it to us. My hope was always that Rick was going to pull through this; he’s so young.

On Thursday ~ when I talked to the neuro surgeon, my hope began to diminish a little. He showed me the CAT scans from when Rick was first admitted on the 10th to the 13th.  The damage was getting worse. He said the left side of the brain was extensively damaged and he could be in a vegetative state or this could still lead to his demise. I felt strange, tingly all over. The next thing I remember was waking up on the cement floor; with the doctor telling me that he put me there, so I wouldn’t fall. They took my blood pressure a few times and gave me some juice. They said I have to start eating. I haven’t had an appetite and haven’t eaten hardly at all. I decided to eat better, so I could be strong for Richard.

I had also went to my family doctor that morning, 4/13/06, to get something for my nerves and maybe to help me rest.

Later that Thursday night; another doctor told us that Richard had internal bleeding (abdomen) and would have to have another surgery to remove the damaged spleen. The surgery itself went well. They took the spleen and it was the cause of the bleeding. It was around 2:00 – 2:30 am on Friday.

The weekend was a matter of keeping his pressure (brain) under control. This was managed pretty well – until Sunday night (Easter Sunday this year). The pressure started to increase a little. After visiting hours, I was going to stay at the hospital, but the nurse said to go home and try to get some rest. We live pretty close. I went to bed crying – knowing things were getting a little worse, but still hoping they’d get better. At 3:30 am Monday, 4/17/06, when the phone rang, I knew it was bad. His pressures were up and they couldn’t do anything more to bring them down.

After Sunday night, when they thought he breathed on his own, when taking him off the coma drug, I was so hopeful (maybe a miracle). He never showed any signs of life when the coma drug was stopped. No pupil reaction to light, no reflexes or any other signs of life. Now, we had to wait until the doctors came in later that morning to do a test to see if there was any blood flow to the brain.

I kept thinking, at least I was able to hold his hand and talk to him; tell him how much we loved him, during the past week. I hope he heard me. I couldn’t hug him because of all the tubes they had in him. What an absolute nightmare this was. I couldn’t believe it was happening.

Just before 2:00 pm, 4/17/06, the doctors came to the hospital family room to inform us that our son had no blood flow to his brain and that brain death had been determined. I wasn’t totally surprised at this point; but we could always hope for a miracle. Both my husband and I had taken a scheduled vacation day from work today (4/17/06), it was our 28th wedding anniversary.

I couldn’t believe our son’s life was taken because of the irresponsible actions of an under aged drinker.

Please don’t tell me not to cry

Please don’t say there was a reason why

You don’t know what I’m feeling 

Or how much I hurt

The wet spots are from tears on the collar of this shirt

You think I should go on with life

Forget about it and be strong

But deep down I am sad, and I don’t want to go along

I don’t expect you to understand why

For no apparent reason I break down and start to cry

My life has changed forever, you see

And that is why I am not acting like the same ole me

So please don’t try to act like nothing happened

Because it’s changed my life forever

I will never be the same again

Not today, not tomorrow, but never

The best thing you can do for me is just be there

Just like always, my friend

My broken heart is hurting bad

And it will never mend.

                                  AP

                                  2002

Richard was set in his ways, in that, he didn't like change. Even from an early age he knew what he wanted and didn't want. For instance, he never wanted to sit in a high chair as a toddler, or eat baby food. He wanted to be like his big brother.

In kindergarten, he decided what he wanted to participate in. He was stubborn and if he didn't want to join in a group activity, he wouldn't. This wasn't always a favorable attribute while he was young, because simple changes could be a battle. When it came time to wear a coat because the weather turned cold... he'd say "I like cold". He'd finally submit to the weather change, but when it came time to change the coat for a jacket...well we'd go through the same process.

We had two boys who were 4 years apart, Richard being the youngest. He always wanted to be like his big brother. I am not always good at remembering the year, but when Richard was pretty young there was a show on TV called Dinosaurs and the baby dinosaur always said "I'm the baby, gotta love me". Ricky decided this would be his motto for awhile. He'd do something he shouldn't be or if we were upset with him, he'd say... "I'm the baby, gotta love me".