What would you have done if you were in that mother's shoes?

Something much different, many years earlier.

The mom definitely should have been more forceful in terms of encouraging her daughter to turn herself in. Even going as far to say "if you don't call the cops...I will". The real bad actor here was Caps-Collins, who is 20 years older than Ashley. She's the one who immediately summoned her husband to bring a flat bed truck and hide the car in a barn way out in Corbett. What's with a 43 year old getting stoned and drunk with a 23 year old, and then letting the younger person drive while they sit in the passenger seat? She got a short sentence because she was the first one to get arrested and confess after spilling the beans to a friend. Fortunately the person she confessed to had conscious and went to the police. In the end the running and hiding probably tripled Ashley's sentence because the DA wouldn't accept less than Manslaughter with all of the aggravating circumstances. It's ironic that Caps-Collins gets off with a slap on the wrist even though she was a major role player in the impaired driving and pretty much orchestrated the entire cover-up conspiracy.

What would you have done if you were in that mother's shoes?

I have no idea.

Imo, and based on my family experience, dads teach you how to man up to something. They are also likely to go nuclear when their kids are sitting around a kitchen table planning how to cover up manslaughter. No one would have gotten out of that kitchen without phoning the authorities.

By chance Ashley was caught and actually has been given a path towards redemption. I hope she takes it and can become better than her upbringing. If she would have got away with manslaughter there would have been no hope for her. Imagine living with that inside you.

No better time to tell your daughter to change her hard-partying ways than the night after she killed a woman while drunk and fled the scene of the crime.

That was a shocking revelation.

I was also aghast at how many people stepped up to help hide the crime. If a coworker from your office asked, would you help them cover up a homicide?

I would have gone to the bathroom, puked my guts out and called the police. Better that the kid gets picked up and deals with the consequences, than drag the rest of the family and friends into the mess. (Nothing like ruining the whole family because one person doesn't want to deal with the consequences of what they have done.)

I still can't believe that that many people just went along with trying to cover it up. Makes me wonder what else that whole family has done and covered up.

Justin--I find your comment frightening but in reality representative of what is wrong with our society.

"What would you have done if you were in that mother's shoes?"

Called the police. Probably the easiest AND hardest thing you'd ever do.

Did anyone watch the sentencing video? To me Ashley looks very very sorry ... for herself and herself only. I predict her chance at redemption as none. When she told the victim's family she would always be thinking of them I would have wanted to tell her, "Please don't."

Her mother and stepfather are a disgrace as well.

We are told of the whole group of conspirators sitting around the mom's house in strategy discussion meetings. Wow. All just reinforcing each other with apparently not a conscience among them....Yeah sure, it might have been hard for the mom to turn her daughter in, but we've all seen plenty of news stories where parents have done exactly that.

I would have marched her right down to the police department and had her fess up and take her lumps. Then I would have gotten her a good lawyer and see if stupidity is a valid defense.

I've been a defense attorney for 15 years,and I'm never surprised by mothers (and fathers) who cover up or make excuses for their children. I am always surprised when I meet parents who make their children take responsibility, because there's a lot fewer of them.

I am definitely of the opinion to the rest of the commentators here. I am raising my children to be moral, strong, kind to others and to be decent human beings but if they were to make a bad decision I would never assist investigators against my own children/family. The police can do their job without my help. I'm going to bat for my family with the best lawyer money can buy and do whatever and everything I can to keep my children out of the hands of the state authorities they can "make an example" out of someone else's child.

Justin--I find your comment frightening but in reality representative of what is wrong with our society.

Unless you've been in the same situation as Ashley's Mom and had to turn your child over to the police, you don't KNOW what you would do.

Everyone is going going to claim they would do the right thing. Because, why not. It's a blog. But in reality, folks just don't know.

I honestly believe many parents would convince themselves that their child was innocent and then do nothing. It is very difficult for parents to believe their child is capable of making a horrible mistake.

I did not find your comment frightening, Justin. I do find Mark's comment chilling.

I agree that no one positively knows what they would do. I respect the fact that you answered exactly that. But I also think someone can be pretty damn sure -- as Mark was, as I was, as others were.

1. Get a good defense lawyer for the child.
2. Make them confess everything to the lawyer.
3. Then make them voluntarily turn themselves in, with the lawyer tagging along for support and to keep the police investigators in line.