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Driver gets 15 years in prison in fatal Crosstown wreck

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2010

Updated: 12/15/2010 08:28 am

TAMPA - Summer Moll was unfazed at parading through a courtroom of strangers, past tall men in uniforms packing guns and waltzing up to the judge's wood-paneled bench.

"I'm not shy," the spunky 6-year-old said, telling a bailiff that she didn't need to be escorted.

She had to stand on her tippy toes and hang a bit on her arms to peek at Circuit Judge Daniel H. Sleet looming over her.

Sleet said he liked her pink and white sundress with the red, pink and blue tropical flowers. She said thank you.

He asked what she wanted for Christmas.

"A tree house bed," was the reply, Summer's name for a bunk bed.

When the judge asked how she was feeling, Summer gave a terse "good."

She pointed out his nameplate. He said people had trouble remembering his name.

A few feet away sat Cheryl Riemann, whose decision to get behind the wheel drunk left Summer permanently disfigured and motherless.

Summer's grandmother, Tammy Rosian, wanted Sleet to meet the little girl and see her scars before imposing punishment today on Riemann.

"It was a choice Cheryl Riemann made and she must be held accountable," Sleet said. "What you did was selfish and destructive."

On the afternoon of Sept. 10, 2008, Riemann got on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway in her Honda SUV after swilling a half-bottle of vodka.

She headed east.

Just past the 78th Street tollbooth, she plowed through the battalion of traffic cones that separated traffic and headed the wrong way on the westbound lanes.

Police said she was going about 80 mph when she careened head-on into Jennifer O'Boyle's Pontiac Grand Am.

O'Boyle and her daughter Summer, then 4, were heading to an afternoon at the beach with friends.

O'Boyle was killed. It was the day before her 25th birthday.

Riemann's blood-alcohol level was 0.244, more than three times the level at which state law presumes intoxication. Her SUV was littered with opened and unopened beer bottles.

Riemann, 28, pleaded guilty to driving-under-the-influence manslaughter and other charges. She faced up to 23 years behind bars.

Riemann read an apology to Summer's family and another to Sleet.

"If I could change positions with Jennifer, I would do it in a heartbeat," she said. "This shame will be with me for the rest of my life."

Amanda Riemann asked the judge to consider her sister's childhood of abuse.

"We're really sorry for what happened," she said. "We keep Summer Moll's family in our prayers."

Rosian and her daughter's friends pressed for the maximum penalty.

"How pathetic of a person do you have to be to be that drunk on a weekday afternoon?" said Christy Briant, one of O'Boyle's friends.

She said Summer's pluck in the face of dozens of surgeries and months of recuperation has helped get everyone through the mourning.

"Her spirit and strength makes her a hero in my eyes," Briant said. "I ask for the maximum so she (Riemann) has to suffer like Summer has to suffer for the rest of her life."

Sleet sentenced Riemann to 15 years in prison, the maximum for O'Boyle's death.

He placed her on five years of probation for the injuries she inflicted on Summer, also the maximum.

"I'm glad to see a stiff sentence," Rosian said. "Maybe people will start thinking before drinking and driving."

Assistant State Attorney Barbara Coleman hopes the sentence catches people's attention, especially during the holidays.

"Summer should be the poster child for not driving drunk," she said. "I hope people keep Summer in mind before making that decision."

Before the four-hour hearing, Summer chatted away with friends, family and others in the courtroom.

She mistook a bearded and gray-haired reporter for Santa, drawing audience laughs when she asked about the North Pole and where Mrs. Claus and the reindeer were.

Summer was equally chatty with the judge.

"Goodbye, it was nice to meet you," Sleet said.

"Goodbye," Summer said after some prompting from her grandma.

With a wave, she left the courtroom to go play with friends.

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