WASHINGTON — A woman was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Montgomery County on Thursday for violating the terms of her parole by repeatedly triggering the alcohol-detecting interlock device installed in her car.
Kelli Loos, 41, of Annapolis, Maryland, had been in prison since March 2016 after pleading guilty to the violation. She had been on parole since 2013 after serving four years of a 10-year sentence for a 2009 crash that killed Gradys Mendoza and Franklin Manzanares.
Loos’ car hit the pickup truck on the Capital Beltway just before the American Legion Bridge in July 2009 with such force that it went careening off the road and down a ravine. Investigators found that both men were wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash; Loos recorded a blood alcohol level of .20 — more than twice the legal limit.
Under the terms of her probation, Loos was forbidden from drinking at all, but records from the alcohol-detecting device showed that she tried to drive with alcohol in her system several times.
At one point, Loos told a Montgomery County judge that the device was triggered by the Altoids mints she’d taken before blowing into it. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy called that explanation “a bit of folklore. It’s not the first time someone’s tried to use Altoids as the reason why they get a false reading.”
McCarthy said the case illustrates the difficulty of dealing with addiction. Referring to Loos, he said, “She says all the right things, she’s done all the programs, but when push comes to shove,” McCarthy said, Loos demonstrated she can’t she can’t stay away from drinking and trying to drive.
“The only way we can protect the community is to keep her locked up,” he said. “All she had to do is just not drink and drive.”
Loos’ attorney, Chip Lipscomb, said of the case, “It’s tragic all the way around.” He called Thursday’s sentence “more than we expected” but noted the seriousness of the case, calling it “a horrible tragedy.”
