CHANDLER, Ariz. — A Mesa Public Schools special education teacher was sentenced to three years probation and six months of house arrest after causing a crash that killed a 9-year-old boy.
Kacie Perry, 43, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of turning left and causing a fatal crash near the intersections of Price and Ray Roads in Chandler on Nov. 11, 2023.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: 'Lo siento mucho': maestra de educación especial de Mesa fue sentenciada por estar involucrada en un accidente fatal
Ilai Petersen and his father, Aaron Petersen, were waiting to cross the street when Perry turned left on a yellow light. She clipped the rear end of another car and sent it spinning into the Petersens.
Perry told the court she's revisited that moment thousands of times since the crash.
"I wish there was a better explanation but I simply didn’t see the other car," Perry said.
Ilai Petersen died from his injuries.
"I am so, so deeply sorry for the pain this accident caused... for the young life taken away too soon," Perry said.
The Chandler Municipal Court judge, Hon. Michelle Lue Sang, told the court this was the most difficult case she's ruled on in her 26 years on the bench.
Lue Sang took into consideration Perry's role as a teacher when deciding her sentence.
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Perry's home detention will allow her to go to work and medical appointments.
Several family and friends of the Petersens spoke about the impact of losing the Ilai Petersen.
“It’s almost been six months since we lost Ilai and there’s not a day a minute or a day that goes by that we don’t think about him," Aaron Petersen said.
Aaron Petersen, who suffered serious injuries in the crash, said his family was hoping for the maximum sentence, which would have included jail time.
“It seems very inadequate for the outcome and reality we have to live with day to day now knowing our son is gone," Aaron Petersen said.
A guilty verdict was the next step for the Petersen family grieving their son's death, but it will never be the justice they sought.
“What does justice mean when you lose a child?" Aaron Petersen said. "The only justice that we could ever hope for is we want our child back and we can’t get that.”
Perry was also sentenced to attend traffic survival school and had her driver's license revoked for one year.
She claimed she was not driving distracted or under the influence at the time of the crash.
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