Alicia Rodrigues, Zygarowski’s 17-year-old daughter, was killed in a car accident hours after her mother allegedly bought rum for her and two others.
Michelle Zygarowski, of Ludlow, listens during her trial in Hampden Superior Court Tuesday. She was convicted Wednesday with providing alcohol to three minors.This is a 4:22 p.m. update of a story posted at 3:36 this afternoon.
SPRINGFIELD – A Ludlow woman, convicted of buying rum for some of the teenagers involved in a car crash that killed her daughter last year, must complete 800 hours of community service.
A jury in Hampden Superior Court on Wednesday found Michelle Zygarowski guilty of buying the alcohol for her daughter and two other teens who were passengers in the Oct. 2 accident in Springfield’s East Forest Park neighborhood.
Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty II declined to impose a six-month jail sentence requested by a prosecutor in the case, saying the mother “has lost her daughter. She has paid a terrific price for her actions.” He ordered the woman serve a two-year probationary sentence.
Alicia Rodrigues, Zygarowski’s 17-year-old daughter, was killed when she was a passenger in a car driven by Jake Trombley, 18, of Springfield. Trombley faces a charge of vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol and negligent operation in a separate case.
Zygarowski was not charged with providing alcohol to Trombley. She was found guilty of buying a bottle of rum for her daughter and two other people who were under 21 years old on the night of Oct. 1.
Her daughter and the others later went on to drink alcohol with Trombley, and then all four got into a car in the early morning hours of Oct. 2.
The jury was not told that Zygarowski’s daughter had died or even that there had been a serious accident, but the judge addressed it his sentencing.
Zygarowski sobbed throughout the sentencing hearing, particularly when Moriarty talked about the loss of her daughter.
Her lawyer, Edward C. Bryant Jr. said, “I don’t believe there is any reason on earth to put her in jail.”
“This is very difficult to say the least,” Moriarty said. He said he understood assistant district attorney James M. Forsyth’s recommendation for jail since it was an “incredibly reckless act” to provide alcohol to three minors who were in a car.
Police reported Trombley was behind the wheel at about 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 2 when he crashed his 1995 Nissan Maxima at Allen Street near Sumner Avenue . Trombley was heading east on Allen Street when the car went out of control and struck a light pole, flipping onto its roof and pinning Rodrigues underneath, according to police.
The two other passengers were uninjured, police said. Police said Rodrigues was not wearing a seat belt. One of passengers told investigators that seconds before the crash, Rodrigues had shouted that they needed to put on their seat belts.