Student faces prison for fatal DUI accident

She's become an anti-DUI crusader, but that doesn't sway judge.

By JOSE CARDENAS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 7, 2007

Jessica Rasdall cries as her parents Lourdes and Don Rasdall talk during court Thursday morning. The three were waiting for Jessica's DUI-man slaughter hearing to resume. "When you look in her eyes and see her crying, she's crying for Laura (Gorman)."
	[Joseph Garnett, Jr. | Times]

Prison seems inevitable for Jessica Rasdall, a University of South Florida student accused of DUI manslaughter in the wreck that killed her best friend.

Rasdall and Laura Ann Gorman, a freshman at Eckerd College, had been drinking at Club Skye in Ybor City last year. Gorman, 18, died after the Honda Civic that Rasdall was driving veered off Interstate 275 in St. Petersburg, flipped and hit a tree.

With a trial looming, defense attorney Tim Hessinger suggested during a court hearing Thursday that Rasdall, 20, would plead guilty in exchange for two years of house arrest and 10 years of probation.

No way, said Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Timothy Peters.

"I am not willing to enter into a plea with no incarceration at all," Peters said.

The hearing did not bridge the gap between two sets of parents whose daughters were childhood friends.

Rasdall's parents say that Gorman easily could have been driving that night in February 2006, and their daughter could have died. The are asking for leniency for Rasdall, who has no previous criminal record.

"When you see in her eyes and you see her cry, she's crying for Laura," Don Rasdall, Jessica Rasdall's father, said Thursday.

During a hearing in March, the Rasdalls asked Peters to consider their daughter a youthful offender. The judge responded then that he favored some prison time.

For their part, the Gormans originally wanted 15 years.

On Thursday, Assistant State Attorney Rohom Khonsari insisted on 101/2 years in prison.

"Judge, she killed somebody," Khonsari said.

The Gormans, who were in court but did not speak, "feel the offer is so unacceptable," Khonsari said.

The two young women had known each other since kindergarten.

In February 2006, Rasdall and Gorman were in their first year of college at two different St. Petersburg campuses. From Gorman's room dorm, they headed to Ybor City. After drinking, they headed back. Rasdall's Honda Civic was not far from the dorm when it went off the road, rolled over and hit a tree.

Rasdall is filled with remorse at having killed her best friend, Don Rasdall said Thursday.

Though "I could never put myself in the Gormans' shoes," Don Rasdall said, "everyday is tough for Jessica."

Since the accident, Rasdall has virtually confessed in public with her anti-drunken driving message.

She has spoken to thousands of students about the dangers, her father said. She tells students she killed her best friend.

Last month, she urged the City Council of Seminole, her hometown, to support an ordinance that would prohibit people under 21 from attending concerts at two popular bars.

She also spoke to incoming freshmen at USF about the dangers of underage drinking in Ybor City, where she and Gorman drank that night.

The presentation started with pictures of the girls growing up. It concludes with pictures of the wreck that killed one of them.

"When she was done, you could have dropped a pin in the room," Don Rasdall said.

Among other things, Jessica Rasdall established a foundation and Web site to spread the message against drunken driving.

"Although I speak out about what happened, I am not in any way excusing my own actions," Rasdall writes on the Web site, www.sobersmile.com. "Strong feelings of guilt and regret remind me everyday of the mistake I made."

The prosecutor is not swayed.

"She can do all this after she goes to prison," Khonsari said during the hearing.

Khonsari pointed out that a law that took effect in July makes it clear that killing someone as a result of drunken driving is a serious crime in Florida.

The new law requires that anyone convicted of driving under the influence manslaughter serve four years in prison.

Peters declined to set another pretrial hearing date before the Dec. 11 trial unless both sides come up with something "constructive" to negotiate.

The defense's proposal "is just unacceptable to me," Peters said.

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or 727 445-4224.

[Last modified September 6, 2007, 23:55:44]