Driver in Gates hit-and-run gets community service
The N.C. State University senior who was driving the vehicle that struck and killed Tar Heel Sports Network reporter Stephen Gates was sentenced Wednesday to a 30-day suspended prison stay.
District Attorney Jim Woodall said the sentence for Emily Caveness means that she will not actually serve prison time. She also was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation and 200 hours of community service.
Caveness was driving a white Cadillac Escalade the night of Oct. 4, 2003, near the split of Interstates 40 and 85 when she struck Gates, who was changing a tire.
She initially was charged with both felony hit and run and failure to report an accident. But the hit-and-run charge was dropped after she pled guilty to the failure to report charge and struck a deal with the district attorney’s office.
She appeared in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for the failure to report charge.
The court recommended that she be put in a youth tutoring program in Wake County to fulfill her community service requirement.
The man driving with her at the time of the incident, Rabah Samara, was acquitted of the hit-and-run charges in November.
Rep. Mary Taylor Price Harrison, D-Guilford, introduced a bill called “Stephen’s Law” in February that would clarify the state’s laws on leaving the scene of an accident. The bill now is referred to the House Judiciary committee.
