Accident induces labor, earns Wasilla man 5-month sentence

PALMER — A Wasilla man was sentenced Monday to five months in prison for rear-ending a car in September and perhaps sending the woman inside into premature labor.

Amy Smith, 26, testified Monday before Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen that after the accident doctors removed her spleen. She said she has to undergo regular medical treatment, perhaps for the rest of her life.

“He has taken time that I had and he has taken that away from my children, my husband,” Smith said, adding that, in her view, five months to serve was a very short sentence.

During this and other court proceedings, Smith testified, “I’ve gotten no peace of mind from anything that’s occurred.”

Just before Smith testified, Kristiansen asked her, “Is the baby OK?”

Smith replied the baby is fine.

For his part, the defendant, Mark Hukill, 39, said the first thing he wanted to do was apologize to Smith.

“Whether or not I caused this injury, I certainly caused this family a lot of pain,” Hukill said.

Hukill, who admitted he was drunk at the time of the wreck, said that in his adult life leading up to the accident he had never been sober for more than 2 weeks.

Now, though, “I’ve been sober for 72 days,” Hukill said.

Assistant District Attorney Kerry Corliss, when outlining the deal she’d reached with Hukill’s attorney, Sam Westergren, said there was some doubt raised at the hospital as to whether the accident had actually caused Smith to go into labor.

“The victims at the time were trying in induce labor, driving around on bumpy roads,” Corliss said.

Westergren noted, in discussing the sentence, that the accident was very low-speed.

“In the impact, there was no damage whatsoever to the front of [Hukill’s] car and very minimal damage to the victim’s,” Westergren said.

The deal Hukill accepted was to enter guilty pleas to charges of third-degree assault and misdemeanor drunken driving. In exchange, he will serve 30 days for the drunken driving charge and four months with 20 suspended for the assault.

Corliss noted that Hukill had a short history of drunken driving, noting that in Washington state he has two cases pending against him for DUI.

But, Kristiansen said, pending cases don’t count as prior offenses.

“Mr. Hukill did not have a criminal history that would otherwise allow me to aggravate it to anything other than two years,” Kristiansen said.

Noting that the plea contained 25 months total with 20 suspended, she accepted the agreement. And she said she was pleased by a portion of the agreement that he seek treatment in jail.

“It’s highly likely that you’re going to need some type of treatment after incarceration,” Kristiansen told Hukill.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.