Woman linked to teens’ crash death gets prison
YORK – A Pennsylvania woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the crash deaths of two teenagers who prosecutors said had been drinking at her home was sentenced Tuesday to 2½ to six years in prison.
Jodie Tierney, 46, was sentenced in York County Court for the June 2015 SUV crash that killed 17-year-old Stone Hill and 16-year-old Nicholas Mankin in Lower Chanceford Township. Her husband, Stephen Tierney, 46, was sentenced to three years’ probation Tuesday after pleading guilty in July to corruption of minors and selling or furnishing liquor to minors.
Prosecutors said both teens, and eight others, had been drinking at the couple’s home the night before the crash while the couple was home and on the day of the crash while they weren’t there.
Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes in July before convicting Jodie Tierney of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment and one count of corruption of minors and furnishing alcohol to minors.
Prosecutors argued she permitted a culture of underage drinking that led to the fatal crash. The defense challenged the blood-alcohol content results and said other factors could have caused the crash, and while conceding she was guilty of furnishing alcohol to minors, contended that occurred only once.
Jodie Tierney tearfully pleaded for leniency Tuesday, and her attorney called prison time “unnecessary.”
Chief deputy prosecutor Tim Barker sought a term of 4½ to 10 years, saying she had “no rules, no restrictions” on what the teenagers could do and citing testimony when her husband told her, “This has to stop,” she told him she made the rules.