Nurse pleads guilty to 2017 dangerous driving charges

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dana Minto, the St James nurse charged with causing death by dangerous driving, following a traffic accident that claimed two lives in 2017, pleaded guilty in the St James Circuit Court on Tuesday and will be sentenced on April 30.

Minto, who was charged in relation to the deaths of 15-year-old Shantae Rose and 52-year-old Franklyn Hylton, looked remorseful as she pleaded guilty before presiding High Court judge, Glen Brown.“I’m guilty, your honour,” Minto said, in a tearful voice after the charges were read out to her by the court registrar.

“What is the date for sentencing?” Brown asked prosecutor Yanique Gardener a moment later.

“April 30, my lord,” Gardener answered.

After the sentencing date was announced, Minto’s attorney, Trevor Ho Lyn, asked for a social enquiry report to be prepared ahead of the sentencing hearing in order for an appropriate term to be decided.

Minto’s guilty plea came four months after her case was transferred to the St James Circuit Court for trial on September 20, 2019. Prior to Tuesday’s court date, the hearing to transfer the case from the St James Parish Court had been delayed eight times. It was Minto’s first appearance in the Circuit Court.

On November 13, 2017, Minto was driving her Toyota Ipsum vehicle along Felicity Road in Glendevon, St James, when she attempted to overtake another motorist. She reportedly lost control of the vehicle, which struck Rose, Hylton, and Rose’s mother and sister, who were standing along the roadway at the time.

Rose, a grade-10 student of Green Pond High School in St James, and Hylton, a heavy-equipment operator, were killed, while Rose’s mother and her sister, who were also hit by Minto’s vehicle, were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.

Following the accident, Minto allegedly jumped from the vehicle and fled the scene, but later surrendered to the police.