HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A Lincoln County mother charged in a crash that left two of her children dead has received the maximum prison time.
Siera Burgess, of Branchland, was sentenced Tuesday to 7-40 years in prison on two counts of DUI resulting in death and a count of child neglect causing injury.
The crash claimed the lives of Skylor Cooper, 3, and Sarah Cooper, 1. Another daughter, Madilyn, 7, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. It happened in March 2017 on Interstate 64 near Milton.
Burgess will also be placed on 50 years of supervised release when she gets out of prison.
She previously entered a Kennedy Plea to the charges in Dec. 2017.
Cabell County Prosecutor Corky Hammers told MetroNews he’s satisfied with the outcome and that this was a tough case especially because children were killed.
“When children are killed, it’s very emotional. It’s very hard to deal with, so we have to make sure that we’re doing our due diligence for the community and making sure that people who commit these types of crimes get big sentences, or as big as the law allows,” he said.
Milton Police previously said they found several beer cans in the crash area, including some in Burgess’s car and some nearby in the debris field.
In Cabell County Circuit Court Tuesday, Burgess asked the judge to allow her time to become a better mother.
“Will you please offer me a one time chance after this one time crime to be a perfect mom to my miracle girl that did make it? Now, I don’t want her to go much longer without her mommy there to talk to her through our loss,” Burgess said with tears in her eyes.
She told the court she regrets her actions and that she thinks about her kids every day in jail.
“I look at my babies’ pictures and I tell them I’m sorry and I think of what could’ve been,” Burgess said.
It was an emotional court hearing, Hammers said, adding the family is absolutely devastated.
“Everybody was just heartbroken over the loss of these children,” he said. “I can’t really describe what the feeling was like in the court room, but it was very sad.”