KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Katie Evans, a 37-year-old mother of six, tragically lost her life in a drunk driving incident seven ago, leaving behind a grieving family.
On October 6, 2017, Evans was driving home after visiting her twin daughters, who were born three months prematurely and were being cared for in the UCLA Intensive Care Unit. A 21-year-old woman, impaired by alcohol, collided with Evans‘ vehicle. Evans was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I want to share my story because I want people to understand just how devastating it is when something like this happens,” her husband, Jacob Evans, said in a previous interview. “It completely ruined my life to that point, and there have been some good things that have happened since, but I don’t want anyone to have to go through the sort of suffering and pain that my family has gone through.”
That night, when his wife hadn’t returned home by midnight, Jacob tried reaching her on her cell, but the calls went directly to voicemail.
Unbeknownst to him, emergency responders were already at the scene of a three-car collision just a mile from his home. There, they found open alcohol containers inside the vehicle of the 21-year-old driver, later identified as Alexia Cina.
“I decided to retrace my steps, and it was only a mile from the house where they had the whole road taped off and they wouldn’t let me through,” Jacob recalled. “They wouldn’t tell it to me straight, but I was able to put all the pieces together and figure out that, unfortunately, that was her right there, a mile from her house, killed by a drunk driver.”
Toxicology reports showed that Cina had a blood alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit when her car jumped the curb and struck oncoming traffic, leading to Katie’s death, according to authorities.
“It took them a long time because they couldn’t positively identify the body,” he said. “It had been so mangled in the accident. They never even let me see the body.”
In July 2018, Cina was sentenced to 10 years in state prison after pleading no contest to the charges against her.
“Whether it’s drunk driving or another challenge in life, I want our kids to face adversity with the strength to grow from it and make the world a better place,” Jacob said.
Although neither Katie nor Jacob had ever drunk alcohol in their lives and may have thought that alcohol wasn’t “their business,” as a result, their family was changed forever because of drunk driving.
“Alcohol is everybody’s business. Don’t let your friends drink and drive. Don’t let somebody leave a party drunk, because you never know. It might be someone you know that’s life is impacted forever,” Jacob said. “Have a plan. Don’t drink and drive.”
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I remember it, but doesn’t seem like 7 years. That event changed Katie Evans family for ever and also changed the DUI driver who probably wasn’t a bad person but alcohol changed it, now she is in prison and forever must live with the memory of that night. If you want to go out and drink alcohol, have a non drinking friend or Uber or Lyft drive you home and pickup your car the next day when you are sober.
Yes it isa terrible loss for the children that lost their mother and my heart aches for them. However I worked with Mr Evan’s at the time, he had help from his church insurance money and a hefty go fund me account and he remarried right away.
As for the drunk driver she sits in a cell dealing with her quilt everyday and will for the rest of her life. Time to release her from one of her prison’s.
I don’t know anyone that is perfect mistakes are made and hopefully lessons are learned and not repeated