Cook receives three-year sentence

RALEIGH (MCT) — Raymond Cook was sentenced to at least three years in prison Tuesday for his role in the Sept. 11, 2009, crash that ended the life of an aspiring ballerina.

The sentencing came after a Wake County jury found Cook guilty of involuntary manslaughter, felony death by motor vehicle and driving while impaired in connection with the crash that killed Elena Bright Shapiro. Cook surrendered his medical license and resigned from his faculty position at the UNC School of Medicine soon after the 2009 crash.

The verdict was returned after nearly 10 hours of deliberation over three days.

Under state law, a person may not be sentenced for both involuntary manslaughter and felony death by motor vehicle.

Judge Osmond Smith said he planned to sentence Cook under the felony death by motor vehicle conviction, a verdict that gives him leeway to consider such aggravating factors as whether the defendant drove in a manner to endanger more than one life, as prosecutors contended.

In a brief 10-minute session shortly after rendering their verdicts, the jury found Cook guilty of the aggravating factor.

While Cook is expected to spend at least three years behind bars, he could spend up to four and a half years, based on the judge’s ruling.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed in passionate closing arguments on Friday the crash that ended the life of Shapiro, a Carolina Ballet apprentice, was “no accident.”

They differed, though, on whether Cook, the doctor on trial for the past two weeks, was guilty of second-degree murder, as prosecutors contended.

Jeff Cruden, the assistant district attorney who shepherded the case through trial, tried to persuade jurors that Cook acted with malice when he consumed alcohol and got behind the wheel of his Mercedes while inebriated.

“He’s a doctor, which comes with certain privileges for sure,” Cruden said. “But it also comes with certain responsibilities. This is not an accident. This is inevitable.”

Roger Smith Jr. urged the jurors to try to set aside their sadness for the Shapiro family.

Cook was impaired by alcohol the last night of Shapiro’s life and traveled at higher than the posted speed, Smith acknowledged.

“This was no accident,” Smith said. “Of course this wasn’t an accident. This was not murder, either.” Cruden said the crux of the murder case could be summed up in a word — “malice.”

To prove malice under state law, prosecutors had to show the defendant intended to drive in a reckless manner that reflected knowledge that injury or death would likely result.

Law enforcement tests showed Cook’s blood-alcohol content at 0.19, more than twice the 0.08 illegal limit.

“We contend right now he was impaired,” Smith said. “This man was impaired, but I want you folks to analyze this case on the real facts.”

Smith reiterated that Cook tried to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation at the accident scene, putting his naked lips on the bloodied face of Shapiro.

“The burden remains on the state to prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that this is a malicious killing,” Smith said.