“The man who killed my daughter will be a free man after three years and will go on with his life. We cannot go on.”
These are the words of a mourning mother after the drunk driver who killed her daughter only received a three-year prison sentence.
On Sunday 9 October Taytim-Lee Hendricks, an 18-year-old in the prime of her life, was hit so hard by a car driven by Gershwin Jacobs that she landed on a nearby roof in Bonteheuwel Avenue. Two weeks prior to her sudden death Taytim-Lee shined at her matric ball in a blue dress. She was preparing for her final examinations.
Jacobs, so drunk that he passed out in the vehicle, was charged with manslaughter and reckless driving.
He was found guilty and on Tuesday sentenced to three years in jail. “If I go into a store now and steal something, I will go away for between 10 and 15 years. But the man who killed my daughter will be free in three years’ time. He is going to see his children grow and prosper. I will never be able to see my child again. It is not fair,” says Mishka Adams, Taytim’s mother.
Adams says she has been emotional since the sentencing hearing. “The judge took his life into consideration, but what about me and my family’s life? And people say I must take it easy. How can I take it easy?”
Adams says she will not appeal the sentence because she does not believe in the justice system. “After all the stress of going to court for more than a year was exceedingly difficult. I do not know if the outcome will be different,” says Adams.
Jacobs was additionally sentenced to 12 years for reckless and negligent driving.
