MORE: Driver in deadly church van, train crash pleads guilty
Ashley was the driver of a Church of Mayfield van on July 28, 2015, when it collided with a CSX train on 14th Avenue, killing 64-year-old Janice Martin and injuring nine children. Ashley and Martin had been picking up children for an evening vacation Bible school at the church when the crash occurred.
Tuesday in court, friends and Ashley’s husband of 40 years, the Rev. Gary Ashley, spoke on her behalf.
“She is one of the most giving persons you would ever meet in your life,” Gary Ashley said. “I need her.”
Judith Ashley addressed Butler County Common Pleas Judge Noah Powers before sentencing, telling him it was difficult for her to talk without crying.
“I just didn’t see the train, your honor, I just didn’t see it in time to stop,” she said sobbing. “I tried to stop, I pushed so hard my leg broke.”
Judith Ashley said she called out to God.
“He let me live, but he took Jan,” Judith Ashley said, adding that she often thinks about her friend that was killed.
“I am sorry. If I could go back and change it, I would your honor,” she said.
MORE: Driver told paramedics she had been "taking Vicodin and Adderall all day"
Defense Attorney Frank Schiavone III told the judge that Ashley is punished every day living with the accident that killed her best friend.
“Judy woke up that morning and did not intend to commit a crime … what she intended was to pick those kids up, to give them a good day, to give them a good day at the church,” Schiavone III said, noting Ashley worked as a nurse and for the church with children.
He added, “we just ask the court consider the punishment has already been done in this case. She is hurting. It is bad enough to lose your best friend, but to have that person be in the passenger seat beside you when you make a mistake like this, I don’t know that you ever recover from that.”
Schiavone said Ashley was not intoxicated at the time of the accident. She had taken medication prescribed to treat a previous medical condition, he said.
Before handing down the sentence, Powers said he considered the people who spoke on Judith Ashley’s behalf as well as letters of support submitted. But he said he also had to consider the facts of the case, which were “the deal breaker.”
“There is no reason to believe that Mrs. Ashley intentionally engaged in any of this conduct that resulted in the death of her best friend and the injury to the children. On the other hand the court can’t overlook the fact that she indicated to firefighters who responded to the scene that she has been taking Vicodin and Adderall all day and that she ran into a train …,” Powers said.
“The fact of the matter is Mrs. Ashley voluntarily took the drugs and voluntarily stepped into the driver’s seat of a vehicle, which in the hands of someone who is impaired, is a terrible weapon,” Powers said.
About the Author
