ST. GEORGE — A 43-year-old Sandy woman accused of causing a head-on crash that killed three members of a North Carolina family and left a fourth critically injured agreed Wednesday to a plea deal with prosecutors.
Jennifer Diamond appeared in 4th District Court in Fillmore where she pleaded guilty to three counts of negligent homicide, each a class A misdemeanor, as well as misdemeanor reckless driving.
The charges stem from a crash June 19, 2018, on U.S. Route 50 in Millard County where husband and wife, Tyrone Bova, 47, and Holly Bova, 43, were killed instantly.
The couple’s 11-year-old son, Haden Bova, died en route to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, while Tyler Bova, 17, was flown to the same hospital in extremely critical condition. He survived.
The family was visiting from Archdale, North Carolina.
A 9-year-old passenger in Diamond’s vehicle suffered severe injuries in the crash and was transported to Primary Children’s in critical condition. She survived.
Read more: Millard County head-on crash kills 3, critically injures 2 children
Diamond was originally charged with three counts of second-degree felony manslaughter, one count of second-degree aggravated assault and reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor.
Diamond, who was driving a Porsche Cayenne, was passing a vehicle on U.S. 50 and instead of returning to her lane of travel, remained in the passing land and struck the Bovas’ Ford Fusion head-on, which sent the Ford shooting backward and flipped the Porsche before both vehicles caught fire, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
Read more: Woman charged in crash that killed 3 in family vacationing from North Carolina
Police were looking at speed and distraction as a possible cause of the crash, listing that dogs riding in the Porsche may have distracted Diamond.
Tyler Bova, the sole survivor of the crash, was represented in Wednesday’s hearing by a South Jordan attorney, according to court records.
Bova, a senior at Trinity High School in Archdale, sustained a torn aorta as well as severe spinal and intestinal injuries and was in a coma for four days at Primary Children’s Hospital, where he remained for months as he underwent more than 20 surgeries.
The teen has since returned to his hometown and is living with family members, according to information gleaned from a “Built Tyler Tough” Facebook page created two days after the crash.
A civil case that is pending cannot be used to resolve the criminal matter, as the two cases are “separate and individual of each other,” court records say.
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