Not for "The Charger Call"

A high school friend e-mailed me this story. For a private school that brags about its sterling alumni reputation, I doubt this is the story they'll be running in the next alumni magazine (yes, my high school prints an alumni magazine, it's sick).

A Benton County driver who left the scene of a fatal hit-and-run in 2004 has been sentenced to two years in prison. Benton County Judge Locke Williams said there was no evidence that Amy Stack, 28, was directly responsible for the death of Robin Jensen, 18.

But the sentence exceeded the 16-to-18 month state guideline, because earlier this month, a jury found that Stack had showed, "extreme indifference to the value of a human life."

Stack's lawyers had lobbied for probation for their client, noting her lack of criminal history, and arguing that Jensen caused her own death by turning in front of the car.

On Aug. 10, 2004, Stack's car crashed into the back of Jensen's bicycle at dusk. Stack sped off and later testified that she thought she hit a deer.

Afterward, she parked her car in her Corvallis garage and ordered a pizza.

She said that the next day, she heard a media account of the crash, called a friend, and then her parents. Her parents arrived from Oklahoma and hired an attorney, who called police late on Aug. 13, three days after the crash.

Prosecutor Michael Wynhausen repeatedly said Stack lacked remorse, providing the judge with several taped conversations of Stack in jail after being convicted.

In that 15-minute conversation, played before the crowded courtroom, Stack and her father made critical comments about the judge, Wynhausen and Corvallis.

At the time of the crash, Stack was a graduate student at Oregon State University. Jensen had just graduated from Crescent Valley High School, and planned to attend Oregon State.