Mother, father react to sentencing of DUI driver in crash that killed daughter

NORTH IRWIN, Pa. — A mother and father shared with Channel 11 their heartbreak over the loss of their daughter, who was killed in a crash in which police said the driver, who was sentenced Friday, had been drinking.

Marlene Jones and Dave Jones are the parents of three. Their daughter, Ashley Jones, died in March after making a decision that proved to be deadly.

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"I always told them, don't ever get in a car with someone who's drunk," Marlene Jones told Channel 11's Joe Holden.

Police said Ashley Jones' boyfriend, Andrew Beal, was drunk behind the wheel of his truck when it crashed on Interstate 70 in West Virginia. He survived but Ashley, his passenger, did not.

"She was always helping people, and just full of life. She loved life," Marlene Jones said of her daughter, who volunteered at the North Irwin Fire Department and was an aspiring electrical engineer.

Marlene Jones said she thought she did enough to warn her three children of the dangers of drinking and driving.

"I don't know why she got in the truck with him that morning because he was legally drunk," she said.

Although police said Beal had been drinking, toxicology tests showed that Ashley Jones had not.

"They told me she had passed away in the accident," said Dave Jones. "That was the worst phone call I ever took in my life."

On Friday, Beal was sentenced in a West Virginia courtroom to nine months in jail on a misdemeanor charge after he pleaded guilty.

"Andy is calling this an accident, but it's no accident when you make the choice to get in the truck and drink and drive. That was no accident," Marlene Jones said in court.

While holding a picture of his daughter, Dave Jones told Holden, "Him (Beal) going to jail for nine months will never bring this back to us. And this is what we miss the most."

WPXI