Jul 6, 2023 4 min read

One by one, a dozen relatives of Joscelyn Vith told the man responsible for the wrong-way interstate crash in Washington that killed her last February about how her death has splintered their family apart and left them a shell of their former selves.

“It’s like we’re a row of dominos and we all got knocked down into each other,” said Vith’s mother, Shelli Jones-Duffy. “Her death has set up a chain of events that affected all of our lives.”

She started her victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing Wednesday for Leandre Latima Woods by looking directly at him as he was seated in the courtroom wearing shackles and an orange jail suit and demanding he look at her while she spoke.

“Look at me when I read this, OK? Look at me,” Jones-Duffy said. “She called me ‘mamma.'”

Jones-Duffy explained that her 32-year-old daughter cared deeply for animals and people, and how just weeks before her death she waited by the side of a woman who had been involved in a vehicle crash, holding her hand until first responders arrived to help the injured motorist.

But Woods left the scene in the early hours of Feb. 17, 2022, after he drove the wrong way on Interstate 70 and crashed head-on into Vith’s car in the eastbound lanes near the Jefferson Avenue exit. Investigators found a half empty beer bottle near Woods’ vehicle and a whiskey bottle in the back seat, according to court documents. Woods told police he fell asleep while driving and woke up lying in the road next to his burning truck.

Jones-Duffy described how Woods “left her alone, crushed in a burning car” and ran away from the crash as other people came to Vith’s aid while she was mortally wounded.

“The worst night of my life was her last night. … I am broken. I am pieces of the person I used to be before her death. Pieces,” Jones-Duffy said.

Woods, 49, of Washington, pleaded guilty in Washington County Court of Common Pleas on June 28 to one felony charge of homicide by vehicle while DUI in connection with Vith’s death. Judge Valarie Costanzo sentenced Woods to serve seven to 14 years in state prison as part of the plea deal, and he will be given credit for time served since his arrest after he turned himself into state police hours after the crash.

Vith’s cousin, Jenna Baker, described the Eighty Four woman as being the “keystone” of their family, which was shattered the day she died.

“Her loss has single-handedly broken apart our system,” Baker said. “We do not know how to function without her.”

Other family members described how Vith and her husband, AJ Lubawy, were raising two children, who were 12 and 14 at the time, but now seem lost not having their mother in their lives.

Vith’s sister, Selina, told the court that she had a “tough exterior” with tattoos covering her body, but that she was “the most beautiful person inside.” She recalled hearing the news that her sister had been in a crash while driving home from work, and then going to a Pittsburgh hospital, where she learned Vith had died from her injuries.

“You, Leandre, and your choices are the reason I have a horror movie as the last memory of my sister,” she said.

Woods watched each person speak during the nearly 90-minute sentencing hearing before offering a brief statement at the end.

“I’m sorry to the family for your loss. She was an angel,” Woods said.

That prompted a response from one of Vith’s relatives in the gallery, tweaking the comment to be in the present tense.

“She is an angel,” the unidentified voice said.

Costanzo called the victim impact statements “heart-wrenching” and thanked the family for sharing their memories of Vith and how her death has deeply affected them.

“They really painted a picture of what a wonderful person Joscelyn was,” Costanzo told the family.