Florida Woman Sentenced for Pregnant Medford Woman's Death

The woman responsible for former Arlington schoolteacher and expecting mother Alanna DeMella’s death in 2012 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Rosa Rivera Kim, 37, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 - three times above the legal level to drive - the night she drove through a cabana at Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, FL, killing DeMella and her unborn son.

Kim, who is five months pregnant, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, with a 15-year period of probation once she is released, according to the Sun Sentinel. Her license has been permanently revoked.

• Also Read: Alcohol Investigated in Florida Crash that Killed Pregnant Medford Woman

DeMella was seven months pregnant and had already picked out a name for her child: Joshua. She was on vacation with her husband, Mike DeMella, after winning a “Real Marriage” giveaway from Genesis, the church she attended in Woburn.

Mike was out of the cabana at the time of the accident and suffered only minor injuries. He flew to Fort Lauderdale for Kim’s trial on Friday, Jan. 30 and, along with DeMella’s mother and sister, criticized Kim’s pregnancy as a ploy to gain sympathy from the jury, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Kim, a mother of three who is pregnant with her fourth child, cried on the stand at her trial. She apologized to DeMella’s family through her tears saying, “If I could do anything to bring them back, I would … I would have thrown myself in front of a car if I would have seen that happening,” The Sun Sentinel reports.

Kim said she got into an argument with her husband at a restaurant that night after ordering a martini, according to an earlier Patch report. She did not finish the drink, but said she couldn’t remember the crash.

Police arrested Kim on May 9, 2012, three months after the accident and charged her with manslaughter.

Read more about Kim’s trial at The Sun Sentinel.

Image: Patch File Photo