By BOB GIBBINS
TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — An area woman serving time for first-degree manslaughter is scheduled to be in Cherokee County District Court next month.
Trisha Denae Catron is scheduled to appear before Chief District Judge Bruce Sewell for a 120-day review. Catron was initially granted a deferred five-year judgment on the man-slaughter case. Prosecutors filed an application to accelerate the deferred judgment in November 2007.
Catron was involved in a crash east of Tahlequah in July 2003 that killed Andrea Beth Doyle. The DA’s office alleged Catron was driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
Catron was arrested by Tahlequah police for DUI after the manslaughter charge was filed. She was also arrested last year in Adair County for possession of marijuana.
Sewell accelerated the deferred sentence to a life sentence in December with all but 10 years suspended. Catron, 23, is serving the 10 years at the Mabel Basset correctional facility in McLoud.
Defense attorney Donn Baker said, in a request for the review hearing, that her release from the Department of Corrections now wouldn’t jeopardize the public and she could further her education.
Sewell has set the case for a hearing on Nov. 3 at 11 a.m.
Catron’s grandmother, Mary Geasland, has written a letter to Sewell that is filed in the court case. Geasland asked the judge to allow Catron to live a normal life outside prison and that would be her best help. She wrote that Catron should be trying out recipes and washing dishes.
The letter also states Catron’s punishment has been “long and severe.”
Sewell could modify the sentence after the Nov. 3 hearing or order it to continue as previously set.
