Members of Elisabeth Burnett-Martin’s family and her friends submitted victim impact statements asking a Bucks County judge to sentence a Wrightstown teenager to jail for causing the vehicle accident last April that killed her.
There were 16 total. The letters laid bare the “boundless despair,” “recurring nightmares” and “unshakable darkness” that followed her death and continue unabated 15 months later. They also paid tribute to the light the 49-year-old victim from Northampton was to others — “a gifted scientist who contributed important research to both heart-disease and cancer,” who laughed loudly, loved unconditionally and listened with compassion and empathy.
“Elisabeth was the best of us...” brother Steve Burnett’s letter began.
Benjamin J. Gillie, of Parsons Lane, was 18 at the time of the crash on Worthington Mill Road. Investigation revealed the Audi S4 he was driving was doing 81 mph, more than double the 40 mph limit. Two seconds before the crash occurred, the accelerator pedal was 94% pressed to the floor, investigators determined. The eastbound Audi spun out, traveled into the westbound lane, and hit Burnett-Martin’s Subaru head-on, according to court documents.
“For Elisabeth’s family, healing will begin with jail time for Benjamin Gillie,” Burnett’s letter read. “And in the absence of jail time, there will never be healing. Mere probation would insult Elisabeth’s memory and the very notion of justice itself. Probation would prioritize his privilege over her life.”
Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr handed down his sentence on July 30. He gave Gillie 12 months of home confinement, then an additional six years of probation. He ordered Gillie seek mental health treatment and to pay fines and costs that totaled $5,092.50, an amount that was paid off three days later.
The prosecutor assigned the case was Assistant District Attorney Alexandria Baland. A spokesman for the DA’s Office indicated there would be no comment on the sentence, per office policy.
Gillie’s attorney — S. Philip Steinberg — did not respond to messages left at his Philadelphia office on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
On the day of his sentencing, Gillie pleaded guilty to charges of homicide by vehicle, a felony; recklessly endangering another person, a misdemeanor; and four summary offenses related to speeding and other traffic code violations.
It was an open guilty plea, meaning the judge was tasked with choosing the sentence. There was no negotiated plea deal between the DA’s Office and the defendant that stipulated an agreed-upon sentence.
“A slap on the wrist” and an “injustice” was how Burnett-Martin’s sister Kate Burnett-Bruckman described it.
“My sister’s death was not an accident,” she said in her impact statement. “Mr. Gillie drove 41 miles per hour over the posted speed and his actions endangered not only his and his passengers’ lives, but the lives of everyone on the road that day. His actions were arrogant, thoughtless and reckless. His actions killed a wife, daughter, aunt, friend, and sister.”
Burnett-Martin’s mother, Nancy Burnett, said life will go on for Gillie and his family.
“People talk about closure; what is that?” she asked rhetorically in her victim impact statement. “How do I ‘close’ fifty years of love for my daughter? How do I ‘close’ the hole in my heart left by her absence? How do I ‘close’ the family circle at holidays and gatherings? How do I ‘close’ the recurring nightmares of that April evening?”
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