MIAMI – A woman accused of driving drunk when her Car2Go Smart Car crashed into a pickup truck in 2013, killing her passenger and injuring the other driver, accepted a plea deal Friday.
Mila Dago, 24, was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of four years in prison for the Aug. 14, 2013, crash that killed her friend, Irina Reinoso, 22. She will then serve 10 years of probation.
Dago, then 22, was charged with DUI manslaughter, manslaughter and two counts of DUI causing serious bodily harm.
Dago was driving a Smart Car when she ran a red light at Northeast 15th Street and Biscayne Boulevard and hit a pickup truck, according to an arrest affidavit. The crash was captured on surveillance cameras.
According to police records, Dago was texting angry messages to her ex-boyfriend shortly before the crash. The last message stated, "Driving drunk woo. I'll be dead thanks to you…Lata."
Reinoso's mother read a statement in the courtroom Friday, explaining the pain she has been caused by losing her child.
"I feel a loud roar inside of me that calls her name and her silence is devastating," she said. "It's the answer that crushes my soul. Every day I visit a dark and lonely place when I cry. I scream and feel an indescribable pain."
First responders told police she smelled of alcohol. Blood samples taken by hospital staff revealed Dago had a blood alcohol content of between 0.178 percent and 0.162 percent shortly after the crash.
"The words 'I'm sorry' will never be sufficient to express my feelings," Dago told Reinoso's family in Spanish.