Driver in fatal crash wants out of plea agreement

Kim Smith

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman serving five years' probation for a fatal auto accident says her plea agreement should be thrown out because she was on medication when she signed it.

Karen Morris' attorney, Herb Sachs, alleges in court documents filed last month that the drugs made Morris incompetent. He further contends District Judge Kathy Hardcastle failed to ask Morris pertinent questions as to Morris' drug and alcohol use on the morning she accepted her plea agreement.

Sachs said on the morning Morris, 34, entered her plea agreement she was on OxyContin and Lortab for pain, Wellbutrin for depression and Ambien for insomnia.

Sachs also says Morris was never told that her real estate license could be revoked after pleading guilty to felony charges.

According to police, Morris was talking on a cell phone March 25, 2001, when she ran two red lights at 65 mph in a 45 mph zone and struck the vehicle in which Leona Greif, 61, and Marcia Nathans, 65, were riding.

Greif and Nathans were killed instantly and Nathans' son, Elliot Nathans, 45, sustained severe head injuries in the crash. Morris and her 7-year-old daughter incurred minor injuries.

Morris pleaded guilty in November 2001 to three counts of reckless driving in a plea agreement that required her to give up her driving privileges for five years, spend 26 weekends in jail and perform more than 1,000 hours of community service.

She was formally sentenced in January, but now, nearly nine months later, she is asking the judge who sentenced her, Nancy Saitta, to overturn her conviction and allow her to withdraw the plea agreement.

Saitta was scheduled to hear arguments in the matter Wednesday, but because of a scheduling problem with Sachs, the hearing was postponed until Oct. 9.

"I don't think there's anything to it," Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson said.

Nelson said he thinks it's odd Morris is just now asking to back out of the agreement. The single mother is afraid of losing her real estate license, he said.

"Has she been stoned the last eight months and is just now realizing" what she did by signing the plea agreement, Nelson asked rhetorically.

By now Morris should be nearly finished completing her 26 weekend jail visits, Nelson said.

"The plea agreement was very favorable to her in terms of what she could have gotten," Nelson said. "She could have received as much as 18 years."

Sachs did not return phone calls seeking additional comment.