Sentence reduced in hit-and-run

Just a week after the one-year anniversary of student Ashley Crouse's death, a court judgment reduced the sentence by half for the man who fled the scene of the car accident that killed her. \nMonroe County Circuit Judge Marc Kellams made the decision Monday based on a defense motion disputing the way the original sentencing was handled, which took place in January. During that hearing, Kellams issued Meliton Praxedis, 22, an eight-year sentence -- the maximum prison time for a charge of fleeing the scene of a car accident.\nThe judge's decision to revise the sentence was hard news for Crouse's father to bear. \n"I'm disappointed that really nothing -- nothing changes," Kim Crouse said. "It really just doesn't change our situation at all."\nBefore Praxedis' original sentencing in January, Crouse's parents both expressed wishes for the maximum sentence in sworn testimonies.\nKellams assigned the maximum penalty, he said in January, because of police reports of witness testimony that alleged Praxedis had consumed alcohol before getting behind the wheel the night of the accident. He used drinking as an aggravating factor when he levied the sentence. \nBut Public Defender David Collins protested against the judge's use of those documents -- documents even the prosecution did not bring forward. \n"I would object to that as hearsay," Collins said in January with regard to the judge's use of testimony. "We don't know whether one beer or two beers is (drinking) heavily for him. That (decision) would demand a jury trial."\nProsecutor Jeff Kehr told the Indiana Daily \nStudent in a January interview that the reason the state did not enter any motions of aggravators was because of the provisions of the plea \nagreement.\nAfter an order signed Monday, Kellams subtracted four years from the sentence. With good-time credit, Praxedis will be deported to Mexico, his country of citizenship, in just a year. \nCrouse's death is still all too fresh in the memories of her friends at IU. Last week, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Crouse's sorority, held a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the sister it lost one year ago. Senior Josh Wendahl, who worked closely with Crouse on the IU Dance Marathon fundraiser and IU Student Association campaigns, attended the memorial. \n"It was a celebration of her life," he said of the vigil. "Everybody was smiling, laughing (and) remembering her life. What she would want us to do now is laugh and remember all the good things."\nWendahl said as tragic as Crouse's death was to her family and the community, he felt she would not want her loved ones to dwell on her death but rather celebrate in her life. \n"It's a frustrating thing," Wendahl said, "but at the same time, Ashley's gone. She's been gone for a year, and there's nothing anybody can do to bring her back. So we just have to have faith in our court system and have faith that (it's) making the right decision." \nU.S. Marshals arrested Praxedis in Delaware on April 15, 2005. \nOfficials had struggled to locate the suspect because he did not possess a valid driver's license or form of identification, police said. \nAfter the IU Police Department obtained an eyewitness sketch of the suspect, New Castle, Del., police were able to match a photograph with the IUPD composite image. \nAccording to police reports, Crouse, boyfriend Christopher Carlson and IU student Julie Greenbaum entered the intersection of Hawthorne Drive and Third Street the night of April 11, 2005, when a gray Honda station wagon driven by Praxedis struck their red Jeep. The vehicles both skidded into the lawn by the Kappa Kappa Gamma house, the sorority where Crouse had lived. \nAt the intersection, the students' Jeep approached a flashing red traffic light while the station wagon had a flashing yellow light, according to the reports. \nPraxedis fled on foot before police arrived at the scene. \nPolice reports state that Crouse, who was in the back seat of the Jeep, landed five feet from the vehicle after the impact. She was the only passenger not wearing a seat belt, according to the report. \nBloomington Hospital medics pronounced Crouse dead at 12:09 a.m. on April 12, 2005.