Amanda Kosal, 25, was being sentenced on Friday for killing father-of-five Jerome Zirker, 31, and severely injuring his fiancée, Brittany Johnson, 31, during a head on collision over the summer, while Kosal was intoxicated. As the families of the victims read their impact statements, Judge Qiana Lillard had to stop them to scold relatives of Kosal who were giggling in the background.
“Whoever can sit here at a tragic moment like this and laugh and smile when somebody has lost a family member… in the entire time that Mr. Zirker’s sister was speaking, that clown — and that’s what I am going to call him, a clown — was sitting there smiling and laughing,” Lillard said, CBS News reports.
Lillard then noticed that Kosal’s mother was also giggling.
“And you can go, too,” the judge added, pointing to Kosal’s mother, Donna. “Because if you don’t know how to act, you can go to jail. So leave.”
“This is a court of law, and these are very serious matters, I understand you all are very upset because your loved one is going to prison — but guess what? She’s going to prison for the choices that she made. These people are here grieving, saddened because a senseless act took away their loved one, and you’re sitting here acting like it’s a joke?” Lillard asked. “Not in Courtroom 502. Not today and not any other day.”
Kosal’s mother was escorted from the courtroom and taken into custody for contempt of court.
“Your disruptive and disrespectful behavior disrupted today’s proceedings and you, ma’am, are going to the Wayne County Jail for 93 days,” Lillard stated.
Amanda Kosal was then sentenced to three to 15 years in prison for the deadly crash.
