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Woman pleads ‘no contest’ to involuntary manslaughter

A Morris woman who ran over and killed her boyfriend with her car in 2018 pled “no contest” to involuntary manslaughter Thursday.

Should Judge Nancy L. Butts accept the District Attorney’s plea deal at the sentencing hearing in April, Fallon Mae Davis, 23, will serve two and a half to five years in prison for killing Luke Beatty in the driveway of his Lewis Township home on Aug. 25, 2018.

Many of the claims Davis made during police questioning — ranging from Beatty committing suicide on his own accord, to believing she ran over something thrown at her car — were lies that hindered and impeded the investigation, said Martin Wade, first assistant district attorney.

“It would be impossible for any human being to not know that they ran over another human being of that size,” he said.

Handprints were found on the hood of Davis’ Volkswagen, he said.

“Whether out of anger or intoxication, she punched the accelerator. This caused the death of Luke Beatty,” said Wade.

If the case went to trial, the pathologist who conducted an autopsy on Beatty’s body would have testified to seeing multiple blunt-force injuries to his spine, lungs and liver, which is consistent with being run over multiple times, said Wade.

Davis “engaged in a series of maneuvers to free the body from the underside of the vehicle,” which additionally caused a burn on the body where it was pinned between the engine and the gravel driveway.

Beatty’s body was left with “massive internal bleeding and hemorrhages,” as Davis drove to the end of his driveway where she called a friend rather than first responders, said Wade.

“In a very self-serving manner,” she waited for the friend to arrive and deprived Beatty of life-saving aid, he said.

The friend, Vanessa Lorson, was present with Beatty and Davis as they went to several bars in Williamsport and started arguing prior to the incident. When Lorson was called back to the home, she was the first to find Beatty’s body and Davis followed behind.

“He didn’t move. I reached down and he was cold. I lifted his head up. I checked his neck and got a faint pulse,” Lorson said at the preliminary hearing. “I took him by his cheeks to get him to look at me.”

Davis sat in the driveway and held Beatty, she said.

“She was rocking him and said ‘Why, why? I didn’t do anything. Why did this happen,'” Lorson said.

Davis said in court Thursday that she would not argue against the allegations at trial.

“I accept the facts of the Commonwealth and would just like to move on,” she said.

Wade said, he sought “the maximum allowed under the law” for involuntary manslaughter.

Typically, the conviction carries a sentence of three to 12 months with an aggravated range pushing the maximum imprisonment up to 18 months in prison. However Davis could serve 30 to 60 months.

Davis will next be in court for her sentencing hearing at 1:30 to 3 p.m., April 20, in courtroom one at the Lycoming County courthouse.

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