Rose Melton, died too early, but never forgotten

If you click on the link listed in the post before this, you can gain some insight into the anger and hurt feelings from either side.  I miss my friend there is no denying that but I think I can say I'm pleased with the outcome as well.  This picture will show you how I remember Rose.  She's the one with her arm crossed.




There was no smile on Crozet native Kelly Dinelle Payne's face when Richmond Circuit Court Judge Beverly Snukals sentenced the two-time drunk-driving killer to 46 years behind bars, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"I could say I'm sorry, but it wouldn't begin to scratch the surface," Payne said, according to the TD. Payne's grinning mugshot in March belied the seriousness of her crime: on March 7, driving her boyfriend's truck in Richmond, she was involved in an accident.

She fled the scene and then struck and killed Ashokkumar M. Patel as he walked home from work. She left the scene of that accident as well.

Payne had already served jail time for killing a 13-year-old Tennessee girl while driving drunk. In total, she has 21 offenses on her record– six of them for drunk driving, and all related to her tendency to consume intoxicants.

Payne's attorney, Dean Marcus, argued that Payne is no longer a threat, and asked Judge Snukals to reduce the sentence the jury had recommended to between 23 years four months and 29 years two months.

"This is not a mean person," Marcus told the judge, according the Dispatch. "This is not somebody we have to worry about. This is not somebody who's going to rob people or hurt people."

Snukals, however, disagreed. "I think Ms. Payne is someone the court needs to worry about," she said. Dean plans to appeal the sentence, according to the Dispatch, claiming that Payne's conviction of both felony murder and manslaughter violates the Constitutional double jeopardy clause.

http://www.readthehook.com/77308/smiling-car-...

I guess this would be were I can honestly tell you that after missing and crying for Rose for ten years, I can finally feel that she has gotten some justice. I hope that Mr. Patel's family can also feel the same. I don't wish for anyone to be faced with long term sentencing, death, or anything else that would keep them away from family members and loved ones. We all make mistakes. But that also doesn't make my hurt any easier either. So I'm posting this so everyone can have an idea of how the Judge felt and what he sentenced her to. Like I said nothing would make the pain and missing any easier, but I'm hoping that maybe this time around Kelly can make some peace with God and find herself out of her drinking addiction.

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