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Sentence in deadly crash is 9 months...
"I'm responsible for the whole thing. I want you to know I'm sorry for what happened," Spletzer said.
Spletzer, who had no run-ins with the law before the crash, had a small amount of diazepam (Valium) in her blood at the time of the crash, a Berrien County Sheriff's Department report said.
Spletzer fell asleep behind the wheel of her Monte Carlo about midnight on Michigan 139 and veered into Csiszar's lane, striking his vehicle.
Csiszar, of St. Joseph, was heading home from his job at WSBT-TV and was traveling north on M-139 near Rocky Weed Road. Police reports revealed that he tried to avoid Spletzer's vehicle but his car struck her car on the driver's side.
Spletzer was thrown from her car and pinned underneath it, causing severe injuries to her left leg.
She had been in a wheelchair for months. She attends physical therapy four times a week, her defense attorney, Andrew Burch, said.
Csiszar, who was wearing a seat belt, was transported to a hospital, but died shortly after arriving.
Csiszar's mother, Patricia Csiszar, told Pasula before Spletzer was sentenced that her son didn't have a chance for a plea agreement, the way Spletzer has.
"He received an immediate death sentence at the time of the accident as a result of Amanda," Patricia Csiszar said.
"I feel the sentence that Amanda gets couldn't compare to Tom's. As his mother, I have received a sentence, too. I have a lifetime of grief."
Under Michigan's zero tolerance for drugs law, people involved in fatal crashes who have even small amounts of a controlled substance in their blood can be charged with a felony and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
Burch, Spletzer's attorney, told Pasula that police reports also indicated that Csiszar, 48, had small amounts of marijuana in his blood.
He said the "trace" amounts of diazepam in Spletzer's blood likely didn't cause the accident.
He said falling asleep behind the wheel is something "everyone in this (court) room is capable of doing."
Pasula sentenced Spletzer to the high end of the state's punishment guidelines of zero to 9 months in jail for the negligent homicide charge by ordering Spletzer to serve nine months in the Berrien County Jail.
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