An Elmore woman who struck two juveniles in Lake Township then left the scene is going to prison.

Kelly DeStazio plans to appeal the prison sentence of 22 months.

DeStazio, 47, appeared Friday in the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman.

She pleaded guilty in May to two counts of failure to stop after an accident, both fifth-degree felonies.

On Oct. 15 at 7:16 p.m., Lake Township police received a report of an injury crash at Ayers Road near Lemoyne Road.

Two juveniles on a motorized bike were severely injured.

The grandmother and mother of one of the boys spoke in court Friday.

Eleanor Riffle said her grandson, Donnevin Murray, is currently taking Lake High School classes online due to the cuts on his face.

“He does not want the students he previously went to school with to see him,” Riffle said. “(This) has forever changed my grandson’s and our family’s life.”

He will need more plastic surgery on his face, she said.

After being struck, Donnevin tried to call 911 but was coughing up so much blood, they couldn’t understand him, she said.

A nurse and two women stopped to help the boys, she said. She praised them and the two Lake Township Police officers who also arrived.

Donnevin had surgery on his leg, and now has a permanent rod and a limp. His nose was also broken.

Riffle quoted something her grandson said while in the hospital: “’I thought I was going to die because I was coughing up so much blood … blood was pouring out of me.’”

The laws need to be stricter than a felony fourth and felony fifth for this offense, Riffle said.

“She could have called for help, but she didn’t,” Riffle said. “Please show kids that justice is very important in your court and innocent kids do matter.”

Kate Murray, Donnevin’s mother, said she didn’t recognize her son when she first saw him. He was covered in blood.

“It devastated us. Thank God he is up and walking,” she said.

Accidents do happen, but it wasn’t an accident when DeStazio chose to not call for help or turn herself in, Murray said.

“To leave those boys for dead is what I think she did,” she said. “Justice needs to be served. As far as I am concerned, she should be punished to the maximum.”

At the plea hearing, Kuhlman said he could impose a maximum sentence of 12 months for each charge.

Wood County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jim Hoppenjans said the other victim’s family could not make it to court on Friday.

The other boy, he said, had a broken leg, skull fracture and brain bleed, was in a coma for four days and has permanent brain damage.

DeStazio lied about what happened that night, saying it was raining, foggy and dark.

“According to the police report, it was a clear night,” Hoppenjans said.

It had rained four hours before the 7:16 p.m. accident; sunset was at 7:18 p.m., so it wasn’t yet dark, he said.

DeStazio said she knew she hit something due to the damage to her vehicle, but she said she thought it was a deer, Hoppenjans said.

“It was a gamble. She gambled with these kids’ lives,” he said. “She said ‘I knew it was a deer.’ She was wrong.”

When Hoppenjans said human hairs were stuck to DeStazio’s vehicle, defense attorney Brad Hubbell objected.

The DNA was inconclusive, he said. Hoppenjans said that the state would have brought in experts to prove the hair belonged to the boys.

DeStazio previously has been charged with a DUI and an OVI/refusal, in 2006 and 2013 respectively, Hoppenjans said.

After pleading guilty May 6, DeStazio violated bond May 11 when she tested positive for cocaine.

She was arrested June 28 and posted $10,000 bond on June 30. She was placed on house arrest.

“All told, what I see from this case is someone who does not want to take responsibility for her actions,” Hoppenjans said.

He asked for an 11-month prison sentence for each charge, to be served consecutively.

Hubbell said what happened was truly an accident.

It was dark that night, the road was unlit, and there is no evidence his client was speeding or driving recklessly, he said.

For whatever reason, the two boys were on a motorized bike on the road with no lights, no helmets and no reflectors.

There’s nothing in the evidence to prove DeStazio left the road and hit a human being. If the evidence were there, she would have been charged with vehicular assault, Hubbell said.

“She takes responsibility for this, but her crime is not hitting those two young men and being negligent or being criminally liable,” Hubbell said. “What she is guilty of is not stopping.”

He asked for a sentence of community control.

“She took responsibility for what she did, and what she did was she didn’t stop,” Hubbell said.

Two witnesses reported passing a vehicle that night that was eastbound on Ayers Road that had severe damage to the front right side. An anonymous caller to the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Oct. 18 reported the vehicle may be in Elmore.

The vehicle was a red Pontiac Grand Am that was missing its right headlight. Debris found at the scene of the crash matched the Pontiac.

Another witness reported seeing DeStazio driving that vehicle the night of the crash.

When found, DeStazio admitted it was her car sitting in front of her house in Elmore.

“If I had known for a split second it was a human being I had hit, I would have stopped,” DeStazio said.

Kuhlman said prison is appropriate as DeStazio is not amenable to community control sanctions based on the seriousness of her conduct and the impact on the victims.

He imposed a sentence of 11 months for each charge, to be served consecutively.

The harm caused by both offenses was so great that a single sentence is inappropriate, Kuhlman said.

He adhered to the plea agreement, suspending DeStazio’s license for three years.

Two additional counts of failure to stop, both fourth-degree felonies, were dismissed Friday.