A Westville woman sentenced last year to three years of home detention—after pleading guilty to operating while intoxicated-causing death, in a 2008 crash which killed her Liberty Township passenger—is in jail after the Porter County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said that she failed a drug test.

Alysha Ramos, 19—who was 17 at the time of the accident but was subsequently waived into adult court—is scheduled to appear at a hearing on the alleged violation on Feb. 24, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Bennett told the Chesterton Tribune.

Ramos “tested positive for morphine,” Bennett said, in violation of the terms of her probation.

In August 2000, Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa sentenced Ramos to three years of home detention and two additional years on formal probation, after Ramos pleaded guilty to OWI-causing death, a Class C felony punishable by a term of two to eight years.

According to the Porter County Sheriff’s Police, at 5:10 a.m. June 1, 2008, Ramos was westbound on C.R. 1400N, west of C.R. 400E in Pine Township, and had just looked down to close her cell phone after completing a call when her passenger, Alisha A. Purnick, 17, of Liberty Township, yelled at her “to pay attention to the road.”

Ramos left the roadway, lost control of her vehicle, and struck a tree on the passenger’s side, police said.

Ramos asked neighbors to call for help, police said, and then flagged down a passing motorist and left the scene. She was later returned to the scene by a family acquaintance, police said, and on a certified test registered a blood alcohol content of .16 percent.

Purnick was airlifted with head injuries to an Illinois hospital, where she died of her injuries on June 8, 2008.

Ramos was waived into adult court in July 2008.

In addition to home detention, Alexa ordered Ramos to participate in a victim impact panel on the dangers of drinking and driving and to undergo substance abuse counseling and treatment.

Posted 1/25/2012