Former MSU student sentenced to prison for role in car accident

Buh bye.
Hopefully, when she gets out, she’ll be picked up in a flying car.

have fun in prison. hope they make u stay 15 years

Without a zero tolerance attitude towards drinking and driving, lives will continue to be lost. What’s the point? Is it EVER worth it to drink and drive? Who cares if I end up in prison, the real consequence is killing somebody. God be with this girl and all involved. Forgiveness does heal and is necessary, but we must use her example to adopt no tolerance with our own behavior, and when our friends and family choose to drink and potentially drive.

I feel sorry for everyone involved in this situation. Don’t drink and drive.

We should be careful in casting stones in this case. We only need to look at the picture to see how this girl is broken up about this whole incident.

Zero-tolerance is a nice slogan, but often as not it becomes a case where the guilty party is branded for life with no chance of redemption.

We should have drunk drivers serve time for deterrent purposes, but if they serve their time then we shouldn’t forever hold it over them. They have their own conscience to face and that should be enough after they have serve their time.

Casting stones? Really, what the article doesn’t say and the LSJ does is that she pleaded no contest so she wouldn’t be penalized for failing an alcohol test while out on bail. This girl has a problem if you kill a friend and still can’t stop drinking. She should spend the rest of her life in jail

I was just going to mention like the comment before me that this article didn’t mention she failed a court-ordered breathalyzer test. I mean come on, how can you drink again after what you did. didn’t you learn your lesson. so sad.

I didn’t read the LSJ article about this. Interesting. I still stick by what I say, though obviously she didn’t learn from the accident and the long jail time is justified and certainly breathalyzers while on parole.

Don’t you have to plead no contest if you were blackout drunk during a crime? Of course, I’m basing this on an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” I saw. I obviously could be wrong.

Yes, in the LSJ article it explains that the reason she pled no contest is because she was drunk and obviously could not remember everything. If she pled guilty, she would have to recall everything and answer questions she might not know/remember the answers to. What some people don’t realize is that when this girl got out of the hospital, she started working at a local BAR, started drinking excessively again, going out and returning to her regular party schedule, and did not learn her lesson. Not only this, but thought she could beat the system by drinking while out on bail when she knew she would have to get a breathalyzer at some point. Do not feel sorry for this girl, feel sorry for the families who have been hurt and lost a son or had someone injured. She received more than enough chances AFTER this accident to get it right and she failed miserably.

The Saturn that was being driven was in fact owned by Joe Barton’s mother, not Melissa. It may not seem important, but it’s the little things that can discredit you.

To Riiight: What neither paper mentioned was the fact the she passed a breathalyzer daily for an untold amount of time. Yes, another one time choice that had dire circumstances for her, not the picture you paint of someone who continued drinking on a regular basis. I pray you are never personally involved in any of the roles taken on by those involved in this tragedy.

To JJ and others, when she got out of the hospital, she couldn’t walk for several months and underwent several hours of therapy a day. She tried going to a couple of parties to try to fit into the MSU campus again but found quickly that she didn’t want to be around that partying anymore. She has NEVER worked in a bar and she completely changed her group of friends because they WOULDN’T stop drinking. She passed 7 months of daily breathalyzers that had to be done between 7 and 9am every day. She failed one because it wasn’t .00, not because she had enough in her system to be legally intoxicated or they would have arrested her on the spot. Did she have one drink? Yes. Was she under so much pressure that she was ready to self-destruct? Yes. And if you read the police report carefully, you’ll see the designated driver started to drive her home to her mom’s and then convinced them to go back to the guys’ apt. Three men and one girl. And her cell phone was broken but no one offered her a phone to call her mom? She would have come pick her up. This whole thing is such a tragedy but adding lies just compounds everyone’s heartache. I hope the Bartons can find some peace some day. If the situation had been reversed, wouldn’t they want their son to be forgiven?

Enjoy prison, sorry about your bad luck. At least you still have apologists like Truth Be Told who are still trying to paint a false picture. Not that the court of anonymous internet public opinion matters, since you’ll still be in prison for killing somebody.

Keep in mind that she was one of hundreds of students that decided to party and drink that weekend. Also keep in mind that dozens of those that were drinking decided to drive. She happened to be one of them that got caught. It seems pretty easy to point the finger when many of you hypocrits break the law every weekend yourselves. Stop the “holier than thou” crap. Enough is enough. Let these people try to put their lives back together again as best they can. None of these people will ever be whole again. But most of those that were injured in the car accident have already gotten huge settlements in their civil lawsuits.

It doesn’t matter if the DD took them back to the party, that is still not a reason for her to get behind the wheel. Secondly, if the conditions of her bail were that she couldn’t drink at all, it doesn’t matter if she was below the legal limit- she still CHOSE to drink, even though she KNEW she was going to be breathalyzed. And why the heck was there any alcohol in her system between 7am and 9am? Either she was drinking pretty early in the day, or she had a heck of a lot more than one beer the night before. And just because other people drive drunk and don’t get caught, doesn’t make it okay. While it is a tragic situation all around, the fact is that this girl made her own choices every step of the way and has no one to blame but herself.

okay i do understand that all of you have your opinions about this situation, but if you don’t know this girl, back off! melissa is a 21 year old woman and has every legal right to drink! this doesnt mean she has to drive while drinking, i’m sure she won’t do that again! i happen to know this individual very well, and have for a number of years. she is a GOOD PERSON! lets not all act like we’re saints and have never driven while a little “buzzed”. the difference is that you didn’t do so under the same circumstances. melissa has every right to work where she chooses, especially in this economy. melissa has to live with joe’s death for the rest of her life! while i don’t disagree with jail time at all, i think that as outsiders in a situation the majority of you are being wayyy too harsh about a situation that you truely and honestly know very little about! she is to blame for making the decision to drive while intoxicated, but just remember that when any of you go out to the bar and get behind the wheel afterward!

Your response is ridiculous.

-She was black out drunk, like she was many times before as a result of her lifestyle at the time.

-She was 21 when she failed the breathalyzer and she did not have a legal right to drink. Court order prevented her from drinking.

-“Buzzed” driving? I wouldn’t condone either, but to attribute “buzzed” to her situation is irresponsible.

-Melissa has every right to come to peace with herself and accept responsibility and pray that the victims find the strength to give the forgiveness that she is seeking. The last thing I would want is for their hatred toward her to keep them from moving on.

I do agree with your last statement for everyone to think before they drink and drive. I do know Melissa and I hope and pray when she gets out of prison she tells her story. As unfortunate as it is there is no room for a redo here. She has a long life ahead of her. I hope her personal problems get resolved and she is able to tell her story and be constructive.

to the response to my comment… i am not by any means attributing “buzzed” to her situation, but i do know for a fact that when someone makes the decision to drive while intoxicated, that is the ter they usually use. i do hope the same thing as far as telling her story when she is released. melissa does have to pay for what happened, this i know. but i have also read all of the articles and their comments and think that you can deffinately tell they don’t know melissa and are casting their opinions a little harshly. they all need to take into account that she is a very remorseful person and has no doubt thought about the accident and its outcome everyday since it happened. i’m positive melissa will recover from this one day. i also know that i will be writing her while shes away, to help comfort her through her recovery. i want everyone to know i DO NOT condone driving under the influence at ANY level! the hatred toward her is unnecesary and unappropriate! I LOVE YOU MELISSA!!!!!

Melissa did not make the right decision in this case. Unfortunately, many college kids drink, drive, and suffer the consquences. This will forever change Melissa, the Barton family, and the others involved. My heart breaks for everyone.

It’s unfortunate, as I was best friends with Melissa growing up. She’s always been a very good person… it’s so sad how one bad night can ruin your life… and others lives. I pray that Melissa has the strength to get through her time in jail and that one day she’ll find it in her heart to forgive herself and let all heal. I know this is something that cannot be forgotten, but I do know that she thinks about it every day all the time.

Please don’t cast stones on her. She suffers enough and knows what she did wrong. She has to live with it, the Barton’s have to live with it… don’t judge too harshly. You don’t know the whole story. Only God can judge her.

Thanks.

First of all, stop assuming that everyone who has commented on here has driven under the influence (as if that makes what this girl did acceptable?). I never have, and if I did and ended up killing someone, I wouldn’t be making excuses for what I did. I am sure this girl does have remorse and I am sure she has gone through a lot of physical and emotional pain, but that still does not change the fact that she CHOSE to drive that night and she needs to own up to that. And she CHOSE to drink and violate her bail conditions. She probably is a wonderful caring person, but she is still a wonderful caring person who needs to take responsibility for something that was HER FAULT.

“Only God can judge her.”

Bwahahahahahahaaaa!!!

The court, the judge and the jury might tend to disagree with you.

Funny how people pull out the bible when they don’t want to be scrutinized, or don’t want their friends to be rightfully JUDGED.

I’m speaking from HER faith, MaximumBob. I’m not saying that she was judged by the courts improperly. If someone close to me died, I’d want them to go to jail, too. She’s doing her time, and she will give herself enough mental punishment from all the guilt and remorse that she doesn’t need it from complete strangers as well. So don’t be such an insensitive jerk.

She’s my friend too! I know she has to pay for what she did, but her family does not need to read the horrible things some people have been leaving on these boards.

A friend is right though, she is a good person and is taking responsibilities for her actions. NO ONE can say that they haven’t done something regretful. This just proves that bad (tragic) things can happen to good people. I am in no way minimizing the harshness of this situation, but she’s a good person nonetheless. It was a tragic mistake and she has to live with it the rest of her life.

I also know Melissa and have for years now. She is a good person who got caught up with her new lifestyle. I know for a fact that she worked at Landshark, because I saw her there working and talked to her and asked her. Her “good girl” image was gone before this event happened, so lets not act like she made one stupid decision…she’s already been caught for two stupid decisions, ,so I can only imagine what she did before, during and after. I do hope that she learns her lesson and does good when she gets out. I do not wish the hurt that comes after a death to anyone. However, as of now, I believe her tears were not tears of a sincere apology but more of she got caught and she got in trouble.