Woman Who Fatally Stopped for Ducks Gets Jail

Emma Czornobaj to serve 90 days, on weekends
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 18, 2014 9:29 AM CST
Updated Dec 18, 2014 2:23 PM CST
Woman Who Fatally Stopped for Ducks to Learn Her Fate
In a Tuesday, June 3, 2014 photo, Emma Czornobaj is pictured at the Montreal Courthouse in Montreal.   (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

A Canadian woman who stopped her car on a highway in 2010 to assist ducklings was sentenced to jail time today, some four years after a father and daughter crashed into her vehicle and died. Convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death, Emma Czornobaj, 26, faced a maximum life sentence—though the prosecution asked for far less. USA Today reported that it wanted 9 months; instead, Czornobaj was handed a 90-day sentence she can serve on weekends starting in January.

She'll also need to complete 240 hours of community service, be on probation for 5 years, and is barred from driving for 10 years. The Montreal Gazette reports she was ordered to immediately hand over her driver's license. While Czornobaj is appealing her conviction, her lawyer said he likely won't appeal the prison term. "It seems to me it is a fit and reasonable sentence, although we will ask the Court of Appeal to look into the driving prohibition for 10 years," he said, per the National Post. (More Emma Czornobaj stories.)

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