Missouri woman sentenced in fatal drunken driving crash

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A suburban St. Louis woman has been sentenced to 12½ years in prison in a drunken driving crash that killed her granddaughter.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://is.gd/e5GNFd ) reports that 49-year-old Theresa Fortner of Arnold was sentenced Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court for second-degree murder, armed criminal action and endangering the welfare of a child. She was drunk in July 2011 when she lost control of her vehicle, hitting a street sign, a house, a tree and a fence. The vehicle landed upside down.

Her 19-month-old granddaughter, Bella Houston, was in a car seat but suffered a brain injury. She was pronounced dead the next day.

Authorities say Fortner's family had told her she shouldn't drive. Tests determined that Fortner's blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit.