By Steve Good

Beverly J. Lay, 42, of Dallas, was sentenced in circuit court at Malvern on Thursday to a term of five years in the Arkansas Department of Correction after entering a guilty plea to a single count of negligent homicide during a hearing on Wednesday.

Lay, through her attorney Tylar Tapp of Hot Springs, requested that a jury set her punishment.

Seventh Judicial District Circuit Judge Phillip Shirron accepted her plea on Wednesday and allowed the case to go forward to a jury Thursday morning.

The jury panel arrived Thursday morning expecting to sit in a two-day case, but the jury only heard testimony about Lay’s punishment as Seventh Judicial District Chief Deputy Prosecutor Richard Garrett and Tapp called witnesses.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated about 90 minutes to set Lay’s punishment, which included a $5,000 fine.

Shirron sentenced Lay on Thursday afternoon, and agreed to allow her to remain free on $25,000 professional bond while awaiting bed space at the ADC.

The charge stemmed from a three-vehicle accident on March 10, 2007, about three miles north of Bismarck on Highway 7, court records show.

Lay was northbound, records show, when she lost control of her vehicle and struck a vehicle driven by Sandra L. Robinson, 60, who was driving in the southbound outside lane of the two lanes at the scene of the accident. Lay’s vehicle continued north and struck a second southbound vehicle.

Robinson died March 16, 2007, in a Hot Springs hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the collision, according to an affidavit by Arkansas State Police Trooper Sammie L. Hart, who investigated the accident and reported a “strong odor of intoxicants” on Lay at the scene.

After allegedly failing two field sobriety tests and a portable breath test, Lay was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated and taken to the Bismarck Office of the Hot Spring County Sheriff’s Office for a second breath test. While at the office, before the breath test could be administered, Lay began complaining of pain in the area of her ribs, and she was taken to Baptist Medical Center in Arkadelphia, where she was treated and released into police custody, according to the affidavit.

While at the hospital, Lay consented to give a blood sample for a blood alcohol test. That blood sample was tested by the Arkansas Department of Heath on March 17, 2007. 

According to the affidavit, results of the test indicated Lay had a blood alcohol level of .14 percent or zero point one four percent.

A blood alcohol level of .08 will sustain a charge of driving while intoxicated under Arkansas law.