A woman in Georgia who was sentenced to 36 years in prison for the deaths of five people in a hit and run has been released after serving only 14 years of jail time.
Aimee Michael was sentenced in 2010 after the gruesome car crash killed five people on Easter Sunday in 2009.
Michael, who was 24 at the time, stood up in court to apologize to the families.
‘I want to say that I am wrong. I have wronged three families, and for that, I am sorry,’ she said, WSB-TV reported.
Now, one of those family members has been left outraged by Michael’s shockingly early release on parole, something she was only notified of after the fact.
Kathy Smith told the outlet that no one informed her that Michael was even up for parole and thought she would be serving her 36-year sentence in full.
‘When I get up every day, my family is not here,’ she said.
The fatal crash killed Smith’s daughter Delisia, Delisia’s husband Robert, their daughter Kayla, 9, and their 2-month-old son Ethan.
Smith said that she plays the piano to cope with the pain of losing her family and added: ‘I was doing so well.’
Now, all the pain has reemerged for Smith with Michael leaving prison after serving less than half of her sentence.
‘When I heard this yesterday, I immediately was in an asthma attack,’ Smith told WSB-TV’s Tom Jones.
No one had contacted her about Michael’s parole or her release, Smith said, adding that she would have spoken with the parole board beforehand to prevent her being freed.
‘I would have told them that, “No, I disagree with her getting out,” I thought 36 years meant 36 years,’ she said.
On the day of Michael’s sentencing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams told Michael: ‘The one thing I couldn’t get out of my mind is that you left the scene of the crime.’
‘And then you followed a course of conduct designed to cover up what happened.’
Prosecutors said in court that Michael caused the deadly crash after losing control of her BMW a few miles from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
She was only arrested more than a week later after neighbors called the police.
Along with the tragic killing of Smith’s family, the crash also killed 6-year-old Morgan Johnson and injured her mother.
Michael’s mother, Shelia, had helped her cover up the horrific crime and pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering the apprehension of a criminal.
‘What Shelia Michael did was driven by fear and attempt to protect her child,’ said Renne Rockwell. ‘It was the worst move she could have made. If Aimee Michael had gone back to the scene, we would be talking about six to 12 months at most.’
But Judge Adams said that ‘as a mother’ she was ‘required to do the right thing.’
‘And when your daughter came to you at a time when she needed you most – she needed her mother – you failed her,’ Adams said at the time.
Michael was found guilty on five counts of vehicular homicide, one count of serious bodily injury, six counts of hit-and-run misdemeanors including reckless driving, failure to maintain lane and tampering with evidence.
Michael’s husband Robert said at the time he felt that he ‘needed to be here’ at the time of the crash and apologized for being overseas.
‘I let you down… I’m sorry that this happened and I just wish we could start all over again,’ he said.
‘But still, I have to remember the victims,’ he continued. ‘They have lost more.’
According to a parole document obtained by the outlet, Michael is in a rehab facility in Emanuel County. The document indicated that she will be on parole for the next 20 years, the outlet reported.
Michael’s mother served three of her eight-year sentence.
Smith, who believes faith has also helped her through the difficult pain of losing her daughter and family, said she had turned her prayers to Michael in a pointed way.
‘I pray I don’t run into her,’ she said.