Carly Rousso Receives 5-Year-Sentence for DUI Death of 5 Year Old

Carly Rousso was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for the DUI death of a 5-year-old girl two years ago, according to CBS Chicago.

Rousso, 20, was found guilty in June of aggravated DUI for driving her car across four lanes of Central Avenue in Highland Park on Labor Day 2012.She struck and killed 5-year-old Jaclyn Santos-Sacramento, who was walking on the sidewalk with her family. She had been huffing a cleaning product at the time, which caused her to get high.

Just before the start of her trial, Rousso pleaded guilty to one of the charges against her, that of reckless homicide.

A prosecutor read a statement from Jaclyn’s parents, who were in court at Wednesday’s hearing but sat silently near the front, according to an article in TribLocal. Her mother asked for the longest possible sentence, saying she will never forgive Rousso but hopes that God will.

Multiple therapists testified at the sentencing hearing on Rousso’s behalf,speaking about how she suffered traumas as a child — feeling alienated because she was adopted, being raped as a teenager and mauled by a pit bull, the TribLocal article says.

Last month, she gave a tearful, anguished talk to a group of Chicago teenagers about the dangers of drugs.

“Drugs, what they do is destroy people,” she says, according to video from NBC Chicago of the talk at a Chicago church. “They destroy lives. They destroy families, friendships. They are doing the devil’s work.”

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