LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A woman has been sentenced to jail but may be able to avoid time behind bars for helping her daughter dump her car after she was involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian.
Kimberly Cowell, 52, Lincoln, Nebraska, said at her sentencing Tuesday that she responded "in the worst way possible" after the Oct. 18 crash that left Tina Mortensen dead.
Court documents said police found the car that was involved in the crash partially submerged in a creek. Surveillance video showed a car belonging to her daughter, Casey Maxfield, and another car that police said was Cowell's pulling in a parking lot in the area.
"I mistakenly thought what I could do to help my daughter instead of thinking about the person she hit," she said.
Lancaster County District Judge Robert Otte sentenced Cowell to 360 days in the county jail but allowed her to get into a program that will allow her to stay out of jail and be monitored.
She has custody of her two grandchildren after their mother began serving a prison term of a little more than two years.
Otte said if Cowell screws up, she will have to serve the remainder of her sentence in jail.