Ex-Stripper Sentenced To 32 Years For Killing Pearland Cop In Drunk Driving Accident

PEARLAND, TX — A former assistant principal turned stripper, who was convicted of intoxication manslaughter for killing a Pearland Police Officer in June 2016 was sentenced to 32 years behind bars on Thursday.

A jury spent nearly two days deliberating on the sentencing phase for Amber Willemsen, 40, who was found guilty on Aug. 1 of killing Pearland Police Officer Endy Ekpanya in a head-on collision on June 12, 2016.

According to investigators with the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office, Willemsen was leaving her job at a Houston area strip club, when she slammed into the passenger side of Officer Ekpanya’s patrol car at a high rate of speed.

RELATED: Former Clear Creek ISD Assistant Principal Convicted Of Intoxication Manslaughter

Willemsen consumed several alcoholic beverages while working her shift that night, according to prosecutors, and had a blood alcohol level of .16, when she hit Ekpanya’s patrol car at 70 miles per hour, KTRK reported.

Investigators said that Ekpanya was traveling east along on FM 518 when Willemsen, who was driving west, crossed the centerline and smashed into Ekpanya's patrol car head-on.

Willemsen suffered minor injuries in the crash, while the driver's side of Ekpanya's car was crushed, trapping the officer inside.

He had to be extracted from the vehicle, and died on the way to the hospital.

Meanwhile, prosecutors revealed that the fatal crash was not Willemsen’s first brush with the law.

He had a prior arrest for DWI from October 2012, and was given probation.

In June 2015, prosecutors said Willemsen was involved in another crash that injured someone else, and with the crash that took Ekpanya’s life, Willemsen had been drinking.

However, the officer in the case, didn’t cite her, didn’t arrest her, and didn’t administer a field sobriety test, KPRC reported.

That incident was investigated by a Houston Police officer, 2ho allegedly told the victim that Willemsen wasn’t drunk enough to charge with DWI.

On May 29, she was arrested again for possession of methamphetamine, and was out on bond when she hit and killed Ekpanya.
Ekpanya left behind a wife and two small children.

During the sentencing phase, Ekpanya’s wife Lucy Lugo, read a statement, explaining how what her family lost because of Willemsen’s selfish negligence.

In her statement, Lugo shared that her husband had aspired to being educated and well-rounded, earning masters degrees in both criminal justice and business administration, and had considered becoming an attorney, before opting to become a peace officer.

“Right now Endy would be working on his Phd, he would be holding our son's hand, guiding him through life, he would be holding me tight, he would be making his mother proud. Instead he lays in a grave because of the train wreck that your life has been. I have never met anyone so selfish, so careless, so overall undeserving of life, with such a heavy disregard for authority,” Lugo said in her statement. “You killed a son, a brother, a family man. You killed fatherhood! Do you understand, you killed fatherhood!”

Willemsen is in the Harris County Jail awaiting transfer to the Texas Department of Corrections.

Image: Shutterstock

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