Jailhouse calls lead to longer sentence

By Kim Smith
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.23.2008

A recorded jail conversation in which a woman made light of the bicyclist she had killed led to her getting a longer sentence in Pima County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Two months ago, Melissa Arrington, 27, was convicted of negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence in connection with the December 2006, death of Paul L’Ecuyer.

She could have received as few as four years in prison, but Judge Michael Cruikshank sentenced her to 10.5 years, one year shy of the maximum.

Cruikshank said he found a telephone conversation between Arrington and an unknown male friend a week after L’Ecuyer was killed “breath-taking in its inhumanity.”

In a call from the Pima County jail, the man told Arrington an acquaintance of theirs believed she should get “a medal and a (expletive) parade because she had taken out “a (expletive) tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot.”
Arrington laughed. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded “No, it’s not.”

Instead of laughing, Cruikshank said, Arrington should have been rendered silent by such shocking and disgusting sentiments.

According to Deputy Pima County Attorney Jonathan Mosher, L’Ecuyer, 45, was riding his Schwinn in the 5-foot-wide bike lane about 8:40 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2006, when Arrington swerved off the road, struck him and then continued for 800 feet before stopping.

A blood test taken 2 1/2 hours after the collision showed Arrington, who was driving on a suspended license for a prior DUI, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.156 percent, nearly double the DUI level. A witness to the crash testified Arrington swerved off the road twice before the collision.

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