One night of several poor decisions landed Dowagiac’s Amber Smith in the hospital, after injuring herself in a vehicular collision with a tree in August.

On Friday, that same incident landed her inside a Michigan penitentiary.

Cass County Circuit Court Judge Michael Dodge sentenced Smith, 28, to a minimum of 18 months in prison and a maximum of five years on charges of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury and operating a vehicle without insurance. Smith had appeared before the court previously on Oct. 29, where pleaded guilty to the charges.

They stem from the crash that occurred on Aug. 2, on Dailey Road in Jefferson Township. Smith was driving with two other passengers, all of whom were inebriated from alcohol and drug use after leaving a party moments earlier, Dodge said.

“As a result you lost control of your vehicle and plowed into a tree,” Dodge said. “There was talk that there was an argument within the vehicle. There was a dispute about one of your partiers being left behind. In retrospect, all of you should have stayed behind.”

Smith and her passengers all received serious injuries as result of the accident, including broken bones, lacerations and torn ligaments, requiring hospitalization and surgery, Dodge said. Smith herself is still in recovery, having to use the assistance of a walker during her sentencing hearing that morning.

It was later discovered in a toxicology report on a blood sample taken upon her admission into the hospital that she had a blood alcohol level of .13 percent, significantly above the legal limit, Dodge said.

When asked by the judge to comment on her actions, Smith broke down into tears, responding that she wanted forgiveness for the harm she caused to others that night.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Smith said. “I tried my best, but I didn’t know what to do. We were all drunk, but I thought I was better than everyone else since they were all doing drugs.”

Her tearful recount of her actions that night did little to lessen the severity of her punishment, since at the time of her arrest she was already serving a probation sentence for an embezzlement conviction in Berrien County. She was also convicted for delivery of cocaine in 2006.

“The significance of this crime, and the results of you committing it, convinced the court that a probation sentence is no longer appropriate here,” Dodge said.

She was given credit for 51 days already served.