OGDEN -- A 19-year-old woman charged with negligent homicide in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist was sentenced Thursday to 120 days in the county jail.
Katelyn Young, of Ogden, was charged in November with the class A misdemeanor count of negligent homicide in the Aug. 13, 2010, death of Kenneth Cox, 64, in a crash in Farr West.
The accident occurred at the intersection of 2000 West and 2700 North when Young turned left into Cox's lane, according to the Weber County Sheriff's Office, which investigated the crash.
Young pleaded guilty to the charge, the only one filed against her, in February. Prosecutors recommended the four-month sentence at the time as part of the terms of the plea bargain.
In the sentence pronounced Thursday by 2nd District Judge Michael Lyon, Young also received three years of probation, including 100 hours of community service.
Negligent homicide applies in a case deemed to lack intent, or the depraved indifference to human life necessary for a charge such as manslaughter or murder, felonies that can bring prison terms. Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor, meaning penalty is limited to the county jail for the offense considered the result of criminal negligence.
Young, 18 at the time of the crash, had never taken the time to obtain a driver's license, police said, which has since been rectified.
"It wasn't that it was suspended or revoked, she just never got one," said Lt. Mark Lowther, sheriff's department spokesman.
With the toxicology testing required and detailed accident reconstruction work, it is not unusual for traffic accident investigations to take six months or more to complete, Lowther said.
In the case of Young, the timeline was complicated by the fact the detective initially heading the case took a job with another police agency.
Cox was an active biker who had just restored the Harley he was driving. The cruise that day was the maiden trip for the newly finished project.
He was a member of the motorcycle education outreach group ABATE, or American Bikers Aiming Towards Education.
One of the group's issues has been drivers who fail to keep a lookout for bikers, accounting for a high number of motorcyclists killed by motorists making left-hand turns.
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