A 33-year-old Half Moon Bay woman found guilty on three felony charges, including second-degree murder, was sentenced to 18 years to life for killing a bicyclist and seriously injuring two others in a July 2022 collision, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
The woman, Samantha Hartwell, had two prior drunk driving convictions and multiple convictions for driving on a suspended license.
“This was not an intentional murder,” Wagstaffe said. “It just goes to show the danger of alcohol and driving. It keeps occurring across this nation. People say driverless cars will solve the issue for us, but, until it happens in society, we will continue to prosecute these cases.”
A jury found her guilty of second-degree murder, felony drunk driving causing death and felony drunk driving causing great bodily injury. She received 15 years to life for the murder and three years for the harm to the car’s other passengers, Wagstaffe said.
A three-week jury trial laid out Hartwell’s killing of 60-year-old bicyclist Thomas Hampe when she swerved driving on Highway 1 near Stage Road. She knocked him down an embankment — where he died almost immediately and wasn’t found for hours — and seriously injured two other passengers driving a Subaru, striking them head-on. Hartwell’s blood alcohol content was .18 at the time, Wagstaffe said.
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