CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Charleston woman charged with killing two people in a wrong-way drunk driving crash in Feb. 2022 will continue serving her current prison sentence after a judge on Monday denied her attorney’s motion to reconsider.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers sentenced Edriene Sutton, 26, in May 2023 to the maximum of two 3–15-year prison terms to run consecutively. Sutton’s attorney asked for those terms to run concurrently instead.
Akers denied the request citing the two lives that were lost. Sutton previously pleaded guilty to two counts of DUI causing death.
Brittany Weldon, 27, and Joshua Robinson, 37, both of Charleston, were both killed at around 3 a.m. on Feb. 26, 2022 after Sutton crashed her car into Robinson’s vehicle just before the Leon Sullivan exit on I-77 in Charleston.
Weldon was a passenger in Sutton’s vehicle. Robinson was the driver of the other vehicle. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
“He didn’t have a chance to fight. He didn’t get a change to say bye,” Robinson’s girlfriend Jeriaha Hall testified during Sutton’s sentencing hearing last year.
According to the criminal complaint, police found a partially empty bottle of gin on the floor of Sutton’s vehicle. Officers also detected the smell of alcohol on her breath. She then admitted to police she had been drinking the night of the crash.
In Kanawha County Circuit Court today where Judge Akers has denied a motion to reconsider sentencing for Edriene Sutton who killed 2 people during a wrong-way DUI crash along I-77 in Charleston in 2022. She’s serving two consecutive 3-15 year prison terms. @WVMetroNews @580WCHS pic.twitter.com/7OZF5fi52e
— Carrie Hodousek (@CarrieHodousek) April 8, 2024
Sutton’s attorney on Monday said his client has been making significant strides while serving time at the Lakin Correctional Center. Akers recognized her progress but said it’s not enough to make up for what she did.
“It sounds like you’re doing a lot of taking advantage of the rehabilitation that is offered and I commend that. I hope that that helps you when you’re finished with your sentence, but I just cannot ignore that two people were killed,” the judge told Sutton.
Akers also expressed disappointment that prosecutors were not able to establish contact with the victims’ families about Sutton’s progress in prison. A letter was sent to the families informing them of Monday’s court hearing, but they were not called directly.
“It would seem that Ms. Sutton has at least tried to do a lot of things to better herself, but it also seems like that victims’ families don’t know anything about that,” the judge said.
Akers said it’s important for the families to be included in the court process and that she would allow Sutton’s attorney to refile for a motion to reconsider again.