Aimee Michael, mother sent to separate prisons

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By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The woman who killed five people in an Easter 2009 hit-and-run collision and the mother who helped her cover up her role are now in prison.

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Bob Andres, bandres@ajc.com Aimee (left) and Sheila Michael stand while the sentences are given by on Nov. 4, 2010.

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Aimee Michael, who was convicted last week of starting the fatal chain-reaction crash that killed three children and two adults on a highway south of Atlanta and then fleeing the scene, was released into the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections Monday, according to the Fulton County Jail.

Her mother, Sheila, also was sent to prison Monday, in an unusually quick transition from jail. Convicts often spend weeks there after their court cases until the prison system collects them.

Mother and daughter were split up, prison officials told Channel 2 Action News.

Aimee Michael, 24, is now being held at Metro State Prison on Constitution Road in southeast Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Corrections told Channel 2.

Sheila Michael, 53, was taken to Lee Arrendale State Prison north of Gainesville, prison officials told Channel 2.

Aimee Michael was sentenced Thursday to 36 years in prison and 14 years on probation three days after a Fulton County Superior Court jury convicted her on 13 felony counts and two traffic misdemeanors. The jury decided that she ran into a Mercedes driving alongside her on Camp Creek Parkway, sending the car spinning into an oncoming Volkswagen.

Everyone in the Mercedes died: driver Robert Carter and his wife Delisia Carter, their newborn son, Ethan, and Delisia Carter's 9-year-old daughter, Kayla Lemons.

Killed in the Volkswagen was 6-year-old Morgan Johnson. Her mother, 43-year-old Tracie Johnson of Atlanta, was driving the car and was seriously injured.

Sheila Michael was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison after her Oct. 15 guilty plea to two felony counts stemming from the help she gave her daughter in covering up her role in the crash.