Port Huron woman's blood-alcohol level was nearly three times legal limit in fatal crash

A Port Huron woman who struck and killed a motorcyclist admitted her blood alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit at the time of the crash. 

"On that particular date, blood was drawn from you and the results of that blood draw showed that you had an alcohol content of 0.214, correct?" asked Tonya Russell's attorney, Joseph Kanan. 

"Correct," she said. 

Russell, 32, pleaded guilty Monday to operating under the influence causing death, failure to report an accident and open container in a vehicle.

She faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

When questioned by Kanan, Russell said she was traveling in her 2005 GMC Envoy southbound on Dunlap Road near Flinchbaugh roads on Nov. 9 in Kimball Township when she struck a motorcycle traveling northbound in the northbound lane, killing 55-year-old Greenwood Township resident Dennis Jones.

Russell is scheduled for a sentencing hearing at 2 p.m. July 6 before St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Lane. 

Contact Laura Fitzgerald at (810) 941-7072 or at lfitzgeral@gannett.com.