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Published: July 14, 2008
Updated: September 18, 2008
CHATHAM – The trial scheduled today for a Danville woman accused of manslaughter has been continued because her attorney is ill.
Monica Leigh Major, of 1030 Ferry Road, was supposed to stand trial today, but her attorney, Joe Garrett, had a medical emergency, said Bryan Haskins, deputy commonwealth attorney.
Haskins said he has to get an update on Garrett’s condition and gather out-of-state witnesses before the trial can be re-scheduled.
Major is charged with aggravated involuntary DUI manslaughter. Her 5-year-old daughter, Jasmine Major, was killed in a single-vehicle accident on June 23, 2007 when they were headed toward Danville. Jasmine Major was pronounced dead at the scene, Haskins said.
Major is out on bond.
Original story:
From staff reports
DANVILLE — Five-year-old Jasmine Saige Major of Danville is dead and Monica Leigh Major is in stable condition following a single-vehicle crash at 10:28 p.m. Saturday in Ringgold.
According to the Virginia State Police, the child was a passenger in a Ford Explorer being driven by Monica Leigh Major at the time of the accident. Jasmine was not wearing a seat belt.
Emergency personnel held up sheets to block the scene as victims were extricated from the wreck. A Life Flight helicopter was summoned and landed across from Auto Outlet USA near the scene. Monica Leigh Major was transported by helicopter to Duke University Medical Center, where Duke officials say she remains in stable condition.
According to a report filed by Virginia State Trooper J.L. Altice, the wreck occurred on U.S. 58 in the westbound lane east of Route 985 across from Auto Outlet USA in Pittsylvania County.
The vehicle ran off the right side of the road, struck a guard-rail, went airborne for 200 to 300 feet before striking an embankment and overturning. Officials haven’t released the reason for the vehicle running off the side of the road.
According to Jasmine’s obituary on page A4, she was a rising first-grader at Brosville Elementary School and a member of Providence Baptist Church, Providence, N.C.
Reader Reactions
Well Ms. Chilton the truth comes out like we knew it would how does that make you feel? This may have been an accident that could have been avoided if Monica wasn’t drunk don’t you agree. I still don’t understand why wait until Nov. for sentencing, but atleast they have decided not to let her out on bond. That was this best decision made so far.
I cant Believe what I,m reading on here. Doesnt everyone think that Monica
has been punished enough. Well as a Mother myself and grandmother I do
I know Monica would never have put that childs life in Danger.IT WAS AN ACCIDENT plain and simple.Monica should be left alone and let her get on with her life so she can grieve the loss of her child.I know the impact this matter has made on everyone involved.Its just really sad and disapointing that people would come on here and say all the bad and ugly things they have said.I also knew Jasmine I held her in my arms as a baby
yes it is a misfortune her life was cut so short by an ACCIDENT. If Monica can smile in a picture then good for her because everytime i see her its seems she will never smile again.I say let her be.
Shes endured enough.
Kathy Chilton
For all of you people, saying cruel stuff about monica,You are nothing! How dare you come on here and post your rude comments, about someone, as sweet and caring as my friend Monica, She has had her whole life destoryed because of a terrible ******Accident********. Neither her or Jaime deserve the heartache that they live with everyday,
I am a mother, and i know that bad things happen to good people, she is living proof of that. So leave her be, because all are to her are words. If you love Jasmine, then respect that angel enough and leave her mother alone. Because that baby is watching down on you everysingle day! And she still loves her mama, and she knows the truth that it was a accident. Monica took such good care of that beautiful baby girl, and she was a good mama, and never would have got behind the wheel drunk, with her in the car. EVER!!!! I just pray that all you hater’s enjoy your perfect accident free live’s, And i hope if something bad was to ever happen to you, by accident, That you would never have to be faced with people such as your self, throwing it in your face, even a year later.
I knew Monica and I knew she liked to party alittle too much. I did not donate any money to her knowing how she was and knowing what happened. If it was to be donated to anyone I felt it needed to be donated to the father. I absolutely agree she needs to serve time for what she did if she would have hit someone else and killed them she would go to jail, and maybe she does feel bad about what she did but what about everyone else that misses her they don’t get anymore time with her. They miss out on the time with Jasmine because Monica was too concerned about herself and her personal life instead of taking the feelings of anyone else into consideration. I hate that it happened and do not wish something like this on my worst enemy but yes I believe she deserves a jail sentence, and it’s time to guit postponing the trial and get it over with.
I think that all of the people that helped out after the accident should not feel bad for helping no matter what you feel the circumstances may be now. If anything, you should feel good about what you done to help out someone in need no matter the reasons. Giving of one’s self is one of the greatest gifts of all and you should never regret ever doing it no matter what you may feel about it later. Like what was said previously, don’t let hear say, rumours, feelings, or distortions ruin the truth. It will all come out in the end. I don’t really know the events of what happened other than the newspaper article and what I have read here, but going by what little information that I have seen, let’s just take a hypothetical situation. First, let’s say she had been drinking and a deer ran out in front of her. Would the results been any different had she not been drinking? The newspaper article says that the car went airborne for 200 to 300 feet. Is this the case or just a guess by the police, did anyone witness the accident? Was the the end result due to speed, drinking, a deer, a combination of all of these, or something else? My question is this, if she was drinking and family and friends knew it, then they should be partly responsible too. We see the commercials every day. “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” and I would hope that family members would not let other family drive drunk especially where children are involved. I know that if this were the case and it was my daughter, grand daughter, etc, I would not only volunteer, but insist on taking the child and the driver home. It is just a bad situation for all involved. A beautiful child is no longer here on earth and I cannot imagine how her father, mother, grandparents, step family, or friends make it through each day without her. I cannot even begin to think how I would handle it if it were my daughter. I would probably end up being a drunk drug addict, not to remove the memory, but to try to deal with the pain. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t be so quick to judge. We are all humans that make mistakes, so we do not have the right to judge others. As far as being punished by the law, that’s a decision of the courts based on the facts that are presented and sometimes that is based on who has the best lawyer so it’s not a perfect system either. At this time it would be better to take your fustrations, energy, etc and help those that still mourn, that still have pain and heart ache and try to make one of the worse situations a family can have a little better.
Monica mourns Jasmine daily. So what if she comes to my house and goes swimming, that is something her and Jasmine did together. It helps Monica to be able to relax and think about Jasmine. I know everyone thinks that she should not step out of her house and never smile again. She might smile when i say something funny, and i am the one asking her to smile to take a picture. Jasmine would hate it if she knew how hateful everyone was being to Monica. She ould also want Monica to be able to be a little happy one day in the future. Who are all of you to judge how she is mourning?
I want to start this by saying that I am not taking sides in this matter…I am simply stating what I KNOW for a fact. There were so many people that went out of their way to collect money (ie. yard sales, auctions, bake sales, etc.) for Monica immediately following her accident. I was one of those. I was told that Monica had not had anything to drink that night. If I had known that she was going to be charged with DUI I never would have done so much for her. During Monica’s stay in the hospital, she continued to tell everyone she had not been drinking. When she returned home, she then said she had one or two beers while she was at the wedding that night. She continued to say, in my presence, that her mother had buckled Jasmine’s seat belt that night before they left the wedding. Her mother had volunteered to take Jasmine with her but Monica said no. Monica said she remembers a deer running in front of her and she swerved to miss the deer. In doing that, her tire “got caught on the guardrail” and she couldn’t control her truck. I don’t know what her blood alcohol was, nor do I know what really happened. I do know that Monica’s story has changed quite a few times. I’m sure Monica is very sorry for what happened, but laying by the pool smiling and laughing is not exactly the best way to show it. It shows absolutely no respect for those people who are still mourning Jasmine’s death, especially her father.
I want to start this by saying that I am not taking sides in this matter…I am simply stating what I KNOW for a fact. There were so many people that went out of their way to collect money (ie. yard sales, auctions, bake sales, etc.) for Monica immediately following her accident. I was one of those. I was told that Monica had not had anything to drink that night. If I had known that she was going to be charged with DUI I never would have done so much for her. During Monica’s stay in the hospital, she continued to tell everyone she had not been drinking. When she returned home, she changed her story and said, in my presence, she had one or two beers while she was at the wedding that night. She continued to say, in my presence, that her mother had buckled Jasmine’s seat belt that night before they left the wedding. Her mother had volunteered to take Jasmine with her but Monica said no. Monica said she remembered a deer running in front of her and she swerved to miss the deer. In doing that, her tire “got caught on the guardrail” and she couldn’t control her truck. I don’t know what her blood alcohol was, nor do I know what really happened. I do know that Monica’s story has changed quite a few times. I’m sure Monica is very sorry for what happened, but laying by the pool smiling and laughing is not exactly the best way to show it. It shows absolutely no respect for those people who are still mourning Jasmine’s death, especially her father.
I don’t know Monica, but know of her and I don’t follow her around to see what she is doing with her life now. I do know that the loss of a child would have to be a devastating life event whether it was caused by myself though an accident, by my own stupid actions, or someone else. It would be hard for me to sit here and judge what she is going through being I have not had to deal with that type of loss. People deal with the loss of a loved one, especially a child, differently and in different ways. Because we don’t always understand these differences, we tend to judge incorrectly and it is not our place to judge at all. Is she sorry, is she remorseful? That’s not something I nor anyone else can see or tell by her actions nor make real judgements about. That is something that only she and God knows and she and God are the only ones that know the exact circumstances of what happened and why. Should she be punished by serving jail time, that is a decision of the court system and not the mob at large and like another comment made earlier, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Let her have her day in court, let the facts come out of what happened, and then make your judgements based on the facts of the court and not by what you feel, see, hear, or think.
The minute Monica spent the first penny from those donation jars, she should have been thinking about what everyone thought about her. People were moved and saddened by her story, and they gave what they could to help out a mother who had lost a child and was herself critically injured. The part that got left out, until now, is that, based on blood-alcohol results, that mother was under the influence. I doubt people would have been as easily convinced or sympathetic if they had known that part of the story. So, yes, I’m afraid Monica does need to be concerned about what the community thinks, because this community stepped up to help her.
As far as her walker is concerned, of course she would need a walker as she recovers. I am just curious as to why she would need her walker one day in Danville and then not need it the same day while shopping in Greensboro or Lynchburg?
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