By By NORMA LERNER / Cassopolis Vigilant
CASSOPOLIS – Everyday Mrs. Diana Everman of Niles hopes the phone will ring and she will be able to hear the voice of Carrie Wallace who was her daughter and best friend. But that will never happen. Wallace was killed in a car accident Nov. 17, 2006. She was the wife of Tim Wallace and the mother of two children.
Eighteen-year-old Jacob Imanse of 880 Anderson Road, Niles, an Edwardsburg High School graduate, who pleaded no contest in a plea agreement to attempted manslaughter with a motor vehicle, ran the stop sign at Dailey Road and Michigan-60. He was allegedly speeding at about 70 miles per hour.
He received five years of probation on Friday and must first serve 90 days in jail suspended until May 19, 2008. This is his summer break from Western Michigan University.
Imanse didn't remember the accident. He received significant injuries and was airlifted to Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, recounted Judge Michael Dodge who reviewed the case. His car hit Carrie Wallace's car who was traveling west on the highway. Her three-year-old daughter, Huntter, at the time was buckled in her seatbelt and was uninjured. Her older son, Hesston, 10, was not in the car.
Dodge said Imanse crashed by driving carelessly. "You were speeding and failed to stop and didn't apply your brakes." He said Imanse traveled the road before and knew the intersection. "You went around a stopped car at (the intersection) at a high rate of speed."
Defense lawyer Gary Stewart of Paw Paw said Imanse's plea was taken under advisement. He ran a stop sign resulting in an accident.
But Prosecutor Victor Fitz said it was far more than running a stop sign. At one and one-half miles back from the stop sign, a witness saw him driving a car fast. "She said that young man will kill someone." He hit the curves prior to the intersection at a high rate of speed. If he would have only waited a few seconds at the stop sign," said Fitz.
His fines and costs were $1,170 with restitution to be determined of about $44,670.