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Woman gets 10 years for DUI death

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Woman gets 10 years for DUI death

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Rachel Elliott<p class=’dotPhoto’>All Chico E-R photos are available <a href=’http://chicoer.mycapture.com/’>here</a>.</p>

By Greg Welter |

PUBLISHED: August 9, 2011 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: April 21, 2018 at 11:45 a.m.

RIVERSIDE — Orland resident Steve Elliott said about 40 supporters seeking justice for his daughter packed a Riverside courtroom Friday as a judge sentenced Elva Diaz, 32, to 10 years in prison for driving drunk and killing Rachel Elliott, 18, in 2008.

She was convicted in July of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving on a suspended license.

Elliott said calling the day-long hearing Friday “emotional” was an understatement, as Superior Court Judge Mark. E. Johnson imposed the maximum term on Diaz, who is a former EMT with an ambulance company.

While Diaz reportedly wept, Johnson called disregarding a friend’s warnings not to drive her vehicle while clearly drunk, not aiding Rachel at the scene despite her EMT training, then fleeing to Mexico and listing her mood as “giddy” on a social network site just three months after Rachel’s death, as “absolutely reprehensible.”

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Earlier, several of Rachel’s relatives and friends read victim impact statements to the court.

“Anything I could say about who Rachel was and what she meant to me, or how her senseless death has affected me, will forever be inadequate,” her mother, Jill Elliott, said.

“The light of my life has gone out, and I stumble in the darkness,” Steve Elliott told the judge.

He said 30 victim’s impact statements were submitted to the court in all, and the judge assured Rachel’s supporters that he read and considered all of them carefully.

“It was clear to us that he genuinely felt the impact of Rachel’s senseless death on those who love her,” Elliott said.

Elliott said Diaz made statements she wanted to become a drug and alcohol counselor, and honor Rachel’s memory by carrying forward her work of DUI prevention, an effort she had begun as a student at Orland High School where she participated in the “Every 15 Minutes” anti-drinking and driving program.

During her incarceration, Diaz reportedly attended four Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Diaz has about two years of credit on her sentence for time served.

Johnson also ordered her to pay nearly $58,000 in restitution to the Elliotts.

“In our view this is the best possible outcome given the verdict returned by the jury,” Elliott said.

Referring to a case three years ago in which a Butte County man was sentenced to 6 months in jail and probation for driving drunk and killing a Chico catering company owner, Elliott said, “We have been afraid that our daughter’s killer would walk away with a similarly ridiculous sentence.”?

After graduation from Orland High School in 2008, Rachel Elliott enrolled at UC Irvine.

She was living in Southern California and visiting a friend in Corona, her former hometown, on the night she was killed.

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