Dec 19, 2016 3 min read

A Washington woman was sentenced Monday in Washington County Court to 27 to 60 months in state prison on charges stemming from the crash on Interstate 70 that killed her 6-year-old son and unrelated drug charges.

Crystal Rush, who will turn 26 Friday, pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to vehicular homicide and child endangerment in a June 4, 2014, single-vehicle crash that threw her and her son, Dominic, from a sport utility vehicle. Rush was driving the SUV west in the left lane when police said she lost control and the vehicle careened into the median, rolling over several times.

“She’s got to live with this every day when she wakes up,” said Sam Pangburn, Rush’s attorney, following the hearing. “That’s her oldest child.”

Police responded to the I-70 accident to find Rush in the median near the eastbound shoulder of the highway and her son pinned under the roof of the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Rush also pleaded guilty to two counts of delivering Suboxone during the proceeding before Judge John F. DiSalle. State police filed the drug charges in June in two earlier occasions they said she sold the prescription drug to an undercover investigator.

“I will admit I have drug problems,” Rush said. “I’m going to work on that.”

Like Rush, others involved in the proceeding noted her problems with substance abuse. While outlining the terms of the plea deal, Assistant District Attorney Leslie Ridge told DiSalle the “commonweath recognizes there are some drug issues involved” and asked him to order a drug and alcohol assessment. DiSalle told Rush she needed “to change your whole behavior, your whole way of thinking” before he handed down her sentence, which includes the evaluation.

DiSalle also granted her credit for time served. She’s been in jail since June 9, according to jail records.

Troopers also discovered Rush didn’t have a valid driver’s license. Her blood was drawn at the hospital and allegedly tested positive for the opioid painkiller hydrocodone. Charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and driving under the influence of a controlled substance that state police initially filed were withdrawn at a preliminary hearing in July.

District Attorney Gene Vittone said at the time he didn’t feel the drugs allegedly found in Rush’s system caused the crash and decided to withdraw the charges after consulting with First Assistant District Attorney Dennis Paluso.

Pangburn said Rush’s other children, ages 4 and less than 1, are living with a relative.

He said his client “still young, she’s only 26 years old, and this will give her the opportunity at the state level to work on her addiction.”