Crystal Brown
cbrown@weatherforddemocrat.com
It’s been nearly 11 years since four Brock teens were killed when a drunk driver hit their car head-on, but their parents continue to fight a battle to keep the man responsible behind bars.
Mandi McWhorter,15; Whitney Welch, 16; Staci Lee, 16; and Lacey Osina, 17, were headed home from a Weatherford video store the night of Dec. 19, 1998, when Ricky Carter, 40, crossed the dividing line on Ranger Highway and crashed into the girls. Whitney and Staci died on scene. Mandi passed on at the hospital and Lacey was the last to go, a few days after the accident.
Carter didn’t have so much as a speeding ticket on his record, but was found to have a blood alcohol level of .16. At the time the law stated anyone over a blood alcohol level of .10 was intoxicated.
A plea bargain was arranged with the families and Carter pleaded guilty to all four counts in exchange for the deadly weapons charge to be dropped.
During the sentencing phase, a Parker County jury decided to hand down the toughest sentence they could under the circumstances — four 20-year sentences to be served concurrently. And with the deadly weapons charge dropped, Carter was eligible for parole after serving only a short portion of his sentence.
Since the trial, the girls’ families successfully lobbied to lower the blood alcohol level signaling intoxication to .08. And each year they do their part to try and keep Carter incarcerated.
“Every year it starts at the beginning of August,” said Liz Osina, Lacey’s mother. “We receive a letter giving us the date of the parole hearing, and from that point until the end of November, sometimes to the end of the year, we’re in a battle again trying to make sure that he serves the sentence he was given.”
She said the yearly ordeal has made it difficult for her family to heal because it keeps them in a standstill, but they are learning to live with it. They knew this process would take place going into the plea agreement, one reason Osina said she and her husband, Mark, were not happy with the idea of Carter being offered the deal.
“When the plea was taking place I spoke with someone at the parole board at that time, and they told me if the plea was accepted and the deadly weapons charge handed down by the grand jury was dropped, that this was the situation we would be in,” Osina said. “At that point that’s when we tried to stop the plea. And what we were told would happen is happening.”
Osina described the parole process her family tracks each year. The case is assigned to three judges in different parts of the state. The lead judge receives information about the case and letters from the community about why Carter should or shouldn’t be released, and the judge makes a decision. The information is then passed on to a second judge. If the second judge agrees with the first, the process ends. If there is a disagreement, the third judge is the final decision maker.
Each year the families encourage friends, relatives and the community to write letters to the parole board requesting Carter to continue serving his sentence.
“They don’t meet together or with any of the families or with Carter,” Osina said. “Each immediate family member is allowed to request to speak with the judge on the phone. That’s it. That’s why the written letters with signatures are so important. That’s all they see. We only get a few minutes on the phone and that’s it.”
She said letters are still being accepted for this year’s parole hearing.
Lezlie Michael, Mandi’s mother, said the judge should start reviewing the information in October.
Michael said she and her then-husband, Doug McWhorter, were in agreement with the plea deal at the time.
“[That way] we were able to do the trial for all four girls all together and tell their story,” Michael said. “So that was just part of the healing for me personally because I didn’t want to have to go through four different trials and live it over and over. But now that we’re here eight-and-a-half years later, I feel that he should serve more time.”
She said letters come in from across the country each year for the parole judge to read asking to keep Carter in jail. Part of the national exposure is due to the Web site www.keeprickycarterinjail.com, where posts have come in from numerous Texas communities and other states supporting the families affected by Carter’s actions.
“Keeping the story alive has helped,” Michael said. “People still remember it even though the accident happened over 10 years ago. It was such a tragic thing that happened at Christmas time.”
For her, the end of the parole process brings relief knowing she has another year to send in more letters. She also thinks about the day Carter will eventually be released into society.
“I think having him out of prison is not really going to affect me as far as missing Mandy any more or any less, but just knowing that he’s out and able to live his life again is sad again,” Michael said. “I’m hopeful that he’s changed. That’s what I pray for.”
Pax Welch, mother of Whitney, said her family was OK with the plea bargain and still is, but she wants to see Carter remain in jail.
“I hope they don’t release him,” Welch said. “But to say that day to day it doesn’t effect my life — my life is affected with the fact that Whitney is not here. I do write a letter every year. I do feel he deserves to serve more time.”
Osina is not so sure Carter won’t make the same mistake twice.
“There is no doubt in my mind, that based on our experiences with him and what he had his lawyers do at the sentence hearing and putting the four families through what he did at the hearing, I don’t have any reason to think he’d be any different,” Osina said.
With that in mind, the Osinas continue to ask and receive support from the community in the form of letters for the parole hearing.
“There are so many people that understand and so many people that do everything they possibly can to help us,” she said. “We’re so grateful for that.
“We still have 12 years to go. Every year I know that it’s going to be more and more difficult to try to see this through, to try and make this happen. It’s really hard to turn to your friends and ask them over and over again, year after year after year to write letters and keep this going. But our hands are tied. We don’t have any choice. We understand how hard it is. Because of the system and the process and they way it is, because of the plea and what’s transpired — there is no other option. I really wish it was different, but it’s not.”
Information on how to format letters to the parole board along with more information about the families can be found at www.keeprickycarterinjail.com.
