Woman pleads guilty in McKeesport fatal DUI crash

By PAULA REED WARD
TribLive

A McKeesport woman who was driving drunk when she blew through a stop sign and crashed her minivan into a car, killing its passenger, will serve three to six years in state prison after pleading guilty on Thursday.

Brittney N. McPherson, 34, will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jaime Hickton on Aug. 18.

She remains on electronic home monitoring pending that proceeding.

According to investigators, McPherson had both alcohol and marijuana in her system at the time of the Feb. 14 crash in McKeesport.

McPherson was driving a Dodge Caravan with three children around 9 p.m. when she crashed into a Honda Accord at the intersection of 24th and Rockwood streets.

A passenger in the Honda, Donna DeFrances, 69, of McKeesport was killed.

The driver of the vehicle was treated at a hospital for broken bones, according to the criminal complaint.

A man and one of the children in McPherson’s vehicle were also taken to the hospital, while the other two children were uninjured, police said.

Investigators said McPherson told them she had smoked marijuana and drunk alcohol before driving and going through a stop sign.

McPherson was driving 56 mph at the time of the crash, according to the minivan’s event data recorder, police said. The speed limit was 25 mph.

As part of a negotiated agreement, McPherson pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, three counts of child endangerment, DUI, reckless and careless driving, speeding and going through a stop sign.

The lead charge, homicide by vehicle while DUI, calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison.