Prosecutor: 200 Hours Community Service Not A Good Sentence For A Volunteer

DENVER (CBS4) - The driver in an accident that killed a 3-year-old boy in Denver's Bonnie Brae neighborhood has pleaded guilty after an emotional day in court.

"He was just a light in this world," said family friend Connie Hamman when describing Austin.

Austin Strasser was crossing the street with his mother in February when he was hit and killed by a car. Denver police cited Joan Hinkemeyer, 78, for the accident.

Hinkemeyer was expected to plead guilty in a plea deal Thursday morning but the judge rejected the deal. She later accepted a deal that was more severe.

Prior to the accident Hinkemeyer apparently didn't have a criminal history or any driving infractions. There was a plea deal on the table Thursday morning that had been agreed to by both sides. The plea deal was for a misdemeanor count of careless driving resulting in death and two counts of careless driving resulting in injury.

The suggested sentence was 200 hours of community service and a driving course.

The judge appeared shocked by the agreement and the boy's family also tearfully questioned the sentence, saying it wasn't justice for killing a 3-year-old child.

Things really became tense in the courtroom when the prosecutor admitted that she only recently learned that Hinkemeyer is a longtime volunteer and that a sentence of 200 community service hours was not a sentence at all. The defense took issue with that and stated the sentence was appropriate for the unfortunate and tragic crash.

"Thirty-seven years I haven't ever dealt with a revision that I don't know about until I was on the record," said defense attorney Steven Newell.

Family and friends of Austin said there are no winners in this case, just a tremendous amount of pain for everyone involved.

"Justice is a funny word because there is no justice in this situation because we can't have Austin back," said Hamman.

Another deal with stricter conditions was presented and Hinkemeyer accepted a sentence of 200 community service hours, a driving course, one day in jail and 30 days home detention.

Austin's family and friends hope their pain, if nothing else, can be a lesson to all drivers.

"Think about Austin when you get behind your wheel. Put down your phone or your food, whatever you need to do to be safe so another family doesn't have to go through this," said Hamman.