Easter crash trial | Aimee Michael to appeal conviction

Print
E-mail

By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Aimee Michael will appeal her conviction in connection with the Easter 2009 crash on Camp Creek Parkway that killed five people.

Enlarge photo

Aimee Michael became emotional on Nov. 4, 2010, as she made a statement to the court and apologized to the families involved in the Easter 2009 chain-reaction crashes that killed five people. She fled the scene and, with the help of her mother, secretly repaired the BMW she was driving on that day. Judge Kimberly Adams sentenced Aimee Michael to 50 years in prison to serve 36 and probation. Her mother, Sheila Michael, received an eight-year sentence for covering up the crime.

Bob Andres, bandres@ajc.com Aimee Michael became emotional on Nov. 4, 2010, as she made a statement to the court and apologized to the families involved in the Easter 2009 chain-reaction crashes that killed five people. She fled the scene and, with the help of her mother, secretly repaired the BMW she was driving on that day. Judge Kimberly Adams sentenced Aimee Michael to 50 years in prison to serve 36 and probation. Her mother, Sheila Michael, received an eight-year sentence for covering up the crime.

More Atlanta/Fulton news »

Michael, 24, was convicted Monday and given a 50 year sentence Thursday. Her lawyer, W. Scott Smith, said Friday that Michael plans to appeal on grounds that prosecutors withheld information about changes to the state's theory about how the April 12, 2009, crash occurred.

The court ordered both sides to produce evidence by June. Prosecutors turned over data from their two crash reconstruction experts, but then altered some of the data just before trial, Smith said.

Initially, a Fulton County police investigator and a civil engineer working for the state determined that Michael was speeding as fast as 70 mph and swerved her parent's BMW into another car driving alongside her, hitting it once and initiating a chain-reaction crash, according to testimony during the trial.

But weeks before the trial started, they decided she was going no more than the 55 mph speed limit and that her car collided three times with the car alongside her, rather than once.

"Both experts for the state changed their opinions two weeks before the trial, and did not provide supplementary reports," Smith said. He said he didn't learn that the state had changed these details until the police investigator testified. "That's the first that I heard they weren't going to proceed under the theory that she was speeding," Smith said.

The information was a crucial part of the case because it went to the core of who caused the deaths of three children and two adults -- Michael or Robert Carter, the driver of the Mercedes who died in the crash.

Smith had argued that the Mercedes hit Michael first, causing her to lose control and spin back into the Mercedes, initiating the big crash.

A jury found the state's theory more credible, and convicted Michael on all counts. At a hearing Thursday, Fulton Superior Court Judge Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams ordered Michael to serve 36 years in prison and 14 on probation.

Smith has 30 days to file a motion for a new trial after the judge formally files her sentence.

After Smith files that motion, he will no longer represent Michael. He said he will ask the court to appoint a public attorney to handle the appeal, because Michael is now indigent.

"The family came out of pocket on this case over six figures, and they do not have the means to hire appellate counsel," Smith said.