THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200279
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
A 25-year-old woman charged with ramming the back of a Jeep and killing one of its passengers was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Friday.
Irma C. Ziehr, of the 20 block of Woodmill Court, could receive 10 years in prison for the August 20 death of 14-year-old Jennifer Erickson.
Jurors will meet Monday to determine sentencing for Ziehr, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder and two counts of child endangerment.
Erickson, of the 4700 block of Helensburgh Drive in Chesapeake, was killed when the 1994 Jeep Cherokee wagon she was in flipped and crashed on the Western Freeway.
During the three-day trial, witnesses testified that on the day of the incident, Ziehr went to a swimming pool, looking for her estranged husband, David Ziehr.
Ziehr testified that she took two 15-year-old girls along with her to act as witnesses, if she and her husband had an argument.
Ziehr later saw her husband's Jeep being driven by 21-year-old Wanda Zavala, who had left the pool with Erickson to get something to eat.
Ziehr began following the Jeep and rammed it. The Jeep hit a guard rail near the Towne Point Road underpass. The Jeep flipped, then rolled several times, pinning both occupants inside.
``This is a result of a person who is obsessed beyond the point of rational comprehension,'' argued Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Dayton, citing Ziehr's jealousy and suspicions about her husband's infidelity.
``Irma Ziehr that day endangered the lives of the girls in her car,'' Dayton said, ``and cruelly and brutally murdered a 14-year-old girl.''
But defense attorney Darrell Sayer argued this there were two separate accidents - one in which Zavala hit his client's 1994 Ford Escort and the other when Zavala lost control of the Jeep.
``Wanda Zavala was steering that Jeep,'' Sayer said. ``It was her act that caused the death of this child, not Irma Ziehr.''
Ziehr and Zavala now face a civil trial in the spring stemming from a $2.35 million lawsuit filed by Erickson's mother, Irene M. Erickson, in September.
KEYWORDS: TRIAL VERDICT INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER by CNB