Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Crash passenger Becky Anderson used to be independent, self-sufficient -- an outdoors person who enjoyed riding and caring for horses. She calls what she is living now, "only an existence."
negligent, gets
prison, fine
'The future is not a place
I want to go in my mind,' says
a former nurse who now
needs full-time careBy Debra Barayuga
Star-BulletinLife as she knew it, she says, ended in a car crash in October 1997, that left her a quadriplegic.
Every day she wrestles with whether there is enough left of her life worth continuing. "I am angry to have been robbed of a great life," she wrote to the court recently.
Circuit Judge Gail Nakatani yesterday sentenced Melvin E Hoffacker III, 22, to one year probation and six months in prison for his role in the crash that took away Anderson's mobility.
Nakatani also ordered him to pay a $1,500 fine to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, with restitution to be determined later.
Hoffacker, then 20, was a passenger in a car driven by companion Nicole Silva.They were arguing when Hoffacker allegedly pulled the wheel, causing the car to swerve and strike a truck in which Anderson was a passenger, near the Women's Community Correctional Facility in Kailua.
Initially charged with second-degree assault, punishable by a five-year term, Hoffacker pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree negligent injury, which carries up to a year in jail.
While Hoffacker denies pulling the wheel, under the plea agreement, he admitted to being a factor in causing the Oct. 18 crash that resulted in serious injury to Anderson.
Silva was not charged.
Yesterday, Hoffacker apologized for what happened and said he was part of the reason for the accident, but denies pulling the steering wheel.
His attorney, Chris Evans, declined comment.
Anderson, 49, who used to live here, was visiting at the time of the accident and was living in Oregon with her husband and son.
Eight years before the accident, she and her husband had purchased their dream property and were raising horses, llamas and sheep, she wrote.
She enjoyed doing things with her hands -- sewing, home decorating, playing the accordion and guitar and photography.
After undergoing surgery six times and spending six months in the hospital, Anderson returned home.
"The first morning I sat in my wheelchair and looked out over our beautiful rolling pastures with all the animals, I knew it was over for me," she wrote. "Not only could I not get out there, but I could not brush, feed or do one thing with any of my animals."
The worst revelation, she wrote, was although she badly wanted to "set the table, slice vegetables, stir dough, load the washer and dryer ... my hands do not work."
Just over three years has passed since the accident, and today her life revolves around doctor's appointments and therapy.
She has racked up more than a half million dollars in medical bills, prosecutors said.
Formerly a registered nurse, Anderson now requires full-time care, seven days a week, from her husband, who has since retired from a job he loved.
"The future is not a place I want to go in my mind," she wrote. (Anderson can compose letters by typing one letter at a time.)
"I am trying not to continue grieving for the life I have lost, but to make a new one with what I have left."