BOISE, Idaho — A Boise woman was sentenced on Thursday, March 7, to serve up to 15 years in prison for killing another woman in a crash on Highway 55 on Aug. 9, 2022.
Ada County District Court Judge Lynn Norton sentenced Natalie Hodson, 39, for vehicular manslaughter and will serve two years in prison, followed by 13 years indeterminate. The judge decided not to put Hodson on probation upon her release and suspended her driver's license for 20 years.
Hodson pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in January for the hit-and-run death of 39-year-old Kristina Rowley of Cascade. The guilty plea was part of a plea agreement in which prosecutors dropped the additional charge of leaving the scene of an injury crash, according to Idaho court records.
Background
On Aug. 9, 2022, a witness called 911 to report a crash that occurred on Highway 55 between Beacon Light and Seamans Gulch Road.
Following an investigation, police said Hodson struck Kristina Rowley with her minivan while she was standing off the side of the road to check the back of her trailer. Deputies found Rowley badly injured and began first aid. Paramedics took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Witnesses told investigating deputies that the driver, later identified as Hodson, kept driving north after the collision. One of the witnesses followed her for a short distance before she pulled over on Suttle Lake Drive. The Ada County Sheriff's Office said deputies interviewed Hodson there and collected evidence from the scene as well as where Hodson had stopped before they arrested her.
In a previous court hearing, prosecutors said Hodson told deputies she thought she had hit a mailbox and had drank four alcoholic seltzers earlier.
Online court records indicated Hodson was cited for and found guilty of speeding three times: In March 2022 in Ada County, in February 2017 in Boise County and in June 2010 in Valley County.
Hodson has a large following on social media as an online business coach, author, public speaker and podcaster. Her Facebook page indicates more than 466,000 followers on that platform; more than 85,000 follow her on Instagram. However, neither account has been updated since the crash.
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