Parents sentenced for driving into Arizona floodwaters, leaving three children dead
The Arizona couple whose two children and niece drowned after they drove into dangerous flood waters in 2019 have avoided jail time.
Daniel and Lacey Rawlings were sentenced on Thursday to supervised probation after accepting a plea deal in December. The same month, Daniel pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter and seven counts of child abuse. He received five years of probation on each charge, to run concurrently.
Lacey Rawlings, 34, received four years of probation on seven counts of child abuse, which is also to be served concurrently. They are both additionally required to complete 1,000 and 480 hours of community service, respectively.
Despite Arizona’s typically dry weather, Tonto Creek had flooded over the day after Thanksgiving 2019. There were barriers warning motorists not to cross, but the couple drove their military-style vehicle, with seven children inside, through the swollen body of water. They were heading back to a family member’s home, Lacey told authorities, but their son enjoyed splashing through the creek and asked to go in again for a second pass.
This time, they drove through a different, more dangerous part of the creek, and their vehicle began to sink.
Two of the Rawling’s children, 5-year-old Colby and 6-year-old Willa, were swept away in the waters and drowned. Their niece, 5-year-old Austin, also died in the flood waters. The couple managed to escape the vehicle along with four other children. They were all rescued by helicopter.
Both parents were charged after the tragedy, but expressed remorse during their sentencing hearing this week. Their surviving children, Nelly and Dallan Rawlings, in a heartfelt plea asked the judge let their parents be allowed to remain with them, at home.
“My life wouldn’t be the same without them,” said Dallan, 13.
Nelly added: “I love everything about my parents.”
In a prepared statement presented to the court, Daniel said that he wants nothing more than to return to that tragic Black Friday and change his actions.
“I wish every day that I could go back and relive and redo the events of that horrific day,” he said. “I wish could take that trauma and carry it myself. I wish I could take everybody’s pain and bottle it up and hold it myself because nobody deserves to endure pain that I have caused them.”
Through tears, Lacey told the court that her children are her “world,” People reported.
“My kids are the reason I get out of bed every single day. My kids are the reason I found a way to move on,” she said. “They deserve a happy life. They deserve a mother who tries her absolute hardest to give them everything they need.”
With News Wire Services
