Reckless driving fatal crash, Milwaukee woman sentenced
Ellastaysha Harris
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a reckless driving crash that happened in May.
Prosecutors charged 25-year-old Ellastaysha Harris with four felonies in the case. Court records show she reached a plea deal on Thursday and was convicted of three counts before she was sentenced; the fourth count was dismissed. In addition to prison time, she was sentenced to 10 years of extended supervision.
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Case details
According to a criminal complaint, officers were stopped at a red light when they spotted a black Ford around 11:50 p.m. on May 11. Police said the Ford was speeding down Appleton Avenue and "unsafely" passed multiple vehicles before running a red light at Nash Street.
The officers made a U-turn to follow the Ford, the complaint states, at which point the Ford was already a few blocks ahead because of how fast it was going. As the officers reached the intersection of Appleton and Burleigh, they came upon the Ford involved in a crash with two other vehicles: a Mitsubishi and a Nissan.
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An officer went up to the Ford and found the driver and sole occupant, identified as Harris, the complaint states. She said she was on her way to see a family member who was in an "emergency position" and apologized for speeding.
The driver was in the back seat of the Nissan when an officer walked up, per the complaint; the driver's seat was unoccupied, and there was a passenger in the front seat. Both were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Prosecutors said 50-year-old Jason Stark, the driver and lone occupant of the Mitsubishi, was unresponsive and had been "shifted" into the backseat as a result of the crash. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Surveillance video from a business near Appleton and Burleigh showed the Ford appear in the frame "at an extremely high rate of speed" before crashing into Stark's Mitsubishi, the complaint states. Both the Ford and Mitsubishi were headed southeast on Appleton Avenue, and the collision sent the Mitsubishi into the northwest lanes of travel where it hit the Nissan.
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Once in custody, the complaint states Harris admitted her driver's license was suspended. She told investigators she thought she was going 35-40 mph and may have run a red light, but only remembered hitting a pole. She made no mention of the family member in an "emergency position" that was mentioned at the crash scene, according to police.
Data from the Ford's airbag control module determined Harris was driving 92 mph seconds before the crash and slowed to 64 mph at the time of impact, per the complaint. The speed limit on Appleton Avenue where the crash took place is 35 mph.
Prosecutors said Harris' driving record showed she was convicted of operating while suspended in Waukesha County in August 2019, and has been convicted of the same crime in multiple jurisdictions five other times since – most recently in August 2021.