Prosecutors will file murder charges against a man they say killed an innocent woman in a drunk driving crash.
Police say Timothy Dowd, 52, was drunk and fleeing from a traffic stop when he ran a red light and T-boned Kaye Borneman's car in downtown Burlington. She died instantly.
Dowd is already facing a slew of charges and Wednesday prosecutors will add second-degree murder to the list. It's a first in Vermont, but has been tried in other states.
"In the last few years, you see prosecutors in other parts of the country trying to try these cases as murder cases instead of vehicular manslaughter cases, in part because I think there is a growing sense of outrage that these repeat drunk drivers continue to get on the road causing great risk to people and many times those risks result in death," said Cheryl Hanna of the Vermont Law School.
Raising the charges to murder would make Dowd eligible for a life sentence if he is convicted.
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Timothy Dowd
