A 70-year-old Brockton woman was found guilty on Friday of vehicular homicide while drunk behind the wheel, leading to a 2018 crash that claimed the life of one woman and left two others injured, officials said. The Plymouth County District Attorney's office announced that Jeanne Heenan was convicted by a Superior Court judge for the accident that resulted in Ethel Rezendes' death nearly three years after she sustained life-threatening injuries.
Heenan was handed a one-year sentence in the House of Correction with credit for time already served, and her driver’s license was revoked for 15 years, as detailed in a statement from DA Tim Cruz's office. According to MassLive, on the day of the incident, Heenan's 2015 Buick Encore veered across a marked lane on North Quincy Street and collided head-on with a 2006 Nissan Altima.
In the wake of the collision, Brockton police found Heenan being placed into an ambulance on a stretcher. The occupants of the Altima, including Rezendes, were swiftly taken to a hospital for their injuries, according to a statement by the Plymouth district attorney’s office as reported by The Boston Globe. Rezendes, who was seated in the back of the Altima at the time of the crash, remained in the hospital until her death on May 1, 2021, due to complications from her injuries.
Prosecutors initially sought a ten-year prison term but Judge William Sullivan handed down the one-year sentence. The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the cause of Rezendes' death was the blunt force trauma endured during the crash. After Rezendes passed away, a grand jury indicted Heenan on new charges, leading to the recent trial where she was found guilty of manslaughter by motor vehicle, The Boston Globe reported.
