Drunk Driver Jailed in Fatal Hit-and-Run

A North Hollywood woman was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail and three years probation for drunk driving that killed a 49-year-old Sherman Oaks woman last year.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael B. Farrell listened to impassioned testimony from the family of the accident victim, Mary Kay Chaleff, before sentencing Cheryl Lynn Ewell, 26, on one count each of hit-and-run and drunk driving.

Chaleff’s three sons, Michael, Andrew, and Daniel, said they forgive Ewell for the April 8 accident but asked the judge to send a message to the community by giving Ewell a jail sentence.

Ewell’s attorney, Andrew R. Willing, asked that Ewell be sentenced to a work furlough program or put under house arrest because she has no prior criminal record.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Dver pointed out that Ewell not only caused a death, but also fled the scene of the accident. Los Angeles police, who arrested Ewell, said she leaped from her car and hid in bushes until a witness persuaded her to return to the intersection where the accident had occurred.

She faced a maximum term of four years in jail, Dver said.

Ewell had a blood-alcohol level of 0.1%, the legal standard then for intoxication, when she struck Chaleff’s car at Addison Street and Woodman Avenue.