On Friday, August 1, Courtroom 4F of the Fairfax County Circuit Court was packed with the friends and family of both the woman awaiting sentencing and the young man whose life she’d taken in a DUI crash.
The end result was 28-year-old Penderwood resident Corbin Flynn being sentenced by Judge Leslie Alden receiving a prison sentence of 12 months for DUI manslaughter as a result of the crash which took the life of 23-year-old Stephen Santoso.
On April 13, 2007 at approximately 8:30 a.m., Santoso was traveling to work when he got into a minor collision on West Ox Road near the Route 50 intersection in Fair Oaks. He and the other driver, a 41-year-old woman from Herndon, exited their vehicles and began inspecting the damage and exchanging information.
That same morning, Flynn had drunk wine in her SUV just hours before after an argument with her husband. Her blood-alcohol content was three times the legal limit of .08. Despite that, she headed toward her job as an aide at a private school for young children. She turned her 2005 Lincoln Aviator onto West Ox Road from Route 50 and crashed into Santoso’s vehicle.
On June 30, the date Flynn entered a plea of guilty, Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Katie Pavluchuk presented the accident’s details. According to Pavluchuk, Flynn, without using her brakes, crashed into Santoso’s vehicle and propelled it forward into both Santoso and the other driver. Santoso went into seizures and received transport to Inova Fairfax hospital where he died two days later from a subdural hemorrhage of the brain.
Flynn and the other driver received treatment for their injuries and were released.
According to Pavluchuk, when police Officer Lance Hamilton took inventory of Flynn’s SUV, he smelled alcohol and discovered a plastic cup with remnants of alcohol inside. Pavluchuk said that Hamilton later smelled alcohol on Flynn at the hospital. Flynn also admitted to have been drinking wine at her godmother’s house from April 12 at 9 p.m. until April 13 at 4 a.m.
Flynn was two weeks pregnant at the time of the crash. Her daughter was born in January.
Flynn was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but all but 12 months were suspended. She was also placed on nine years probation and ordered to pay costs incurred for her prosecution, undergo mental-health and substance-abuse treatment, and perform 250 hours of community service. Judge Alden also said that after six months, Flynn may be placed on work-release or house arrest if the sheriff agrees.
