WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The family of the victim of a fatal wrong-way crash on Interstate 91 excoriated the other driver on Tuesday for the lasting agony she has caused them. The driver, who was intoxicated at the time of the collision, told the court her actions were unforgivable: “If it were possible, I would give my life to reverse my disgusting, irresponsible behavior that day.”

The reckoning between Sarah Love, of Fayston, Vt., and the family of Kathleen Spence occurred during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing in Windsor County Superior Court. Love pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges in the collision that killed Spence, of Rockingham, Vt., two days before Thanksgiving in 2021.

“Sarah Love, you killed Kathleen Hodsden Spence, my sister, and you need to atone for the horrible choices on that fateful day,” said Lee Hodsden, Spence’s brother, standing with his wife and daughter as they each took turns addressing Love, who was sitting at the defense table a few feet in front of them.

“You need to realize the pain you inflicted on Kathy’s family and many friends. And the only way we can see that happening is if you do significant jail time,” he said.

Love, 36, who had family members in attendance in the gallery, was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison. Under the plea agreement, she was ordered to serve three years and then will be placed on probation. The plea and sentence agreement negotiated this past spring by the Windsor Court state prosecutor’s office and Love’s defense attorney was approved by Judge John Treadwell at Tuesday’s hearing.

Treadwell ordered Love, who had been free on bail since the crash, to report at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington on Tuesday afternoon for immediate incarceration.

“Ms. Love, the sentence structure squarely presents you an opportunity to make amends. ... I suggest you do so,” Treadwell said.

The Nov. 23 crash occurred when an intoxicated Love was driving north in her SUV in the southbound lanes on I-91 and collided with two other vehicles near mile marker 56 in Windsor. Spence, driving one of the vehicles, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other motorist suffered minor injuries.

At the time she was killed, Spence, a graduate of Bellows Falls Union High School, had been working as a server at Denny’s in West Lebanon. A talented seamstress who also sold cosmetics door to door, Spence had worked as a food server at various restaurants in the region, including Exit Ate Diner in Ascutney and Father’s Restaurant in Westminster, Vt.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, five members of Spence’s family each took turns delivering their victim impact statements describing how Spence’s untimely death has left them reeling. A sixth statement, from Spence’s partner, was read aloud by a court-appointed victim’s advocate.

“We as a family do not want Kathy’s death to be simply a statistical pin on the map board of the state of Vermont indicating where fatal accident had taken place,” said Lee Hodsden, who noted he served as a Vermont State Trooper for more than 25 years. He said in his career he had processed hundreds of DUIs, but the police report on his sister’s case — which detailed how Love at times was uncooperative with responders at the scene — “was one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”

“You serving three years is not justice in our book,” said Lee Hodsden, as he turned his gaze to Treadwell on the bench.

Lee Hodsden’s wife, Suzanne Hodsden, recalled how her sister-in-law, who left behind 21 nieces and nephews, was “the life of the party at any family function” with a “loud laugh” and “amazing host skills and homemade cinnamon buns.”

“She loved her animals and her extravagant gardens, her Thomas Kincaid art. Her seamstress skills were amazing,” Suzanne Hodsden said. She recalled how Spence once handmade patchwork quilts and “Christmas dresses with matching dolls for every single one of us” in addition to sewing “matching police jackets” for everyone on a family reunion to Disney World.

In a halting voice, Spence’s brother, Chris Hodsden, shared how he, his wife and daughter had been in their car together driving home from West Lebanon the night of Nov. 23 when they encountered “stopped traffic” on I-91 and got off at an exit to take an alternate route home.

No way could they have suspected, Chris Hodsden said, until “we got a knock on the door by a state trooper” later that evening, that the reason for the stopped traffic on I-91 had been a car crash in which his sister had been killed.

If they had happened to leave West Lebanon a few minutes earlier, said Chris Hodsden. they would have arrived on the southbound stretch on I-91 where Love was drunkenly driving north in the wrong lane, “and that could have been us.”

When it was her turn to address the court, Love read through tears from a piece of paper laid flat on the table. She said she knew her words “hold no validation now, but I’m so sorry for the incredible hurt I brought you all.”

“Kathleen Spence was so many important and wonderful things to so many people, and she should have been able to continue that journey. I apologize from the bottom of my heart for taking that from her,” Love said.

She acknowledged that although she’s tried to empathize the suffering of Spence’s family, ultimately it is an agony out of reach.

“It’s impossible. I’ll never know how you all feel,” Love acknowledged.

“If it was possible, I would give my life to reverse my disgusting, irresponsible behavior that day. I will never forgive myself. I don’t expect to be forgiven. I allowed complete selfishness to dictate my actions.”

Unsure if she was going to make a statement in court, Kathleen Spence’s niece, Sarah Hodsden, said that her aunt’s unjust death is a painful reminder how every moment carries the possibility that “life is over when you blink.”

And therein lies a possibility for the perpetrator’s redemption, if she accepts the responsibility.

“As hard as it is today, you get to go to jail and you get to ‘blink’ and you get to start your life over again,” Sarah Hodsden said. “And I hope when you do, you make a great impact to society and you learn from your mistake and you start over and you do right by my aunt and my family, who’s always done right. And that’s what I wish for you,” she said.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.