Commerce Teen Sentenced To Jail For Fatal Crash
June 21, 2018
Sentence has been handed down to an Oakland County woman in connection to a fatal traffic crash.
18-year-old Sophia Buttazzoni of Commerce Township was a passenger in the car driven by Jordan Watson of Howell the night of October 9th, 2016 when he drove into two Waterford Township homes, killing one of the other passengers in the vehicle. In April she pleaded no contest in Oakland County Circuit Court to two counts of allowing an intoxicated individual to drive a motor vehicle causing serious injury. In exchange, the more serious count of allowing an intoxicated individual to drive a motor vehicle causing death was dismissed.
In court Wednesday, Buttazzoni was ordered to spend a year in the Oakland County Jail with the balance of her sentence suspended after 183 days at which point she must serve 500 hours of community service and five years of probation.
Police say the car in question belonged to her father, but she had legal control over it that night and is accused of knowingly allowing Watson to drive while he was intoxicated. He had a blood-alcohol content of 0.32% at the time of the crash, four times the legal driving limit.
Watson earlier pleaded no contest to 2nd degree murder for the death of 19-year-old Gage Remsberg of Highland Township, who died from his injuries two months after the crash. Watson was ordered to spend between 19-and-a-half years and 50 years in prison. (JK)