A state appellate court has ruled that the prison sentence given a Watertown woman in 2011 for killing another woman in a drunken-driving crash was not too severe.

Bobbie J. Monaghan, 42, is serving a 1²⁄₃-to-5-year sentence at Albion Correctional Facility for guilty pleas in Jefferson County Court in April 2011 to first-degree vehicular manslaughter and first-degree vehicular assault.

She admitted that she was intoxicated when her vehicle passed through a red light Jan. 14, 2010, at routes 11 and 26 in Evans Mills, striking a vehicle in which Kathleen H. Deyo was a passenger. Ms. Deyo, 40, Gouverneur, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The vehicle that was struck was driven by Ms. Deyo’s sister, Kelly A. Peck, Gouverneur, who was injured in the crash. Dawna Kriegel and James Kriegel also were injured in the accident. The family members were returning to Gouverneur from the funeral of Ms. Deyo’s brother in South Carolina.

At Ms. Monaghan’s sentencing, Judge Kim H. Martusewicz rejected her attorney’s pleas to sentence her to time served at the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building and a term of probation supervision. Calling the crash “no accident,” Judge Martusewicz told Ms. Monaghan that it was her choice to consume alcohol before driving and that the consequences were that one person was killed and three others injured.

Even though Ms. Monaghan had waived her right to appeal at the time of her plea, the state Appellate Division, Fourth Department, considered her contention that her punishment was unduly harsh or severe. In a decision released Friday, the court rejected that argument. She also had appealed on the basis that she received ineffective assistance of counsel from her attorney, but the court did not consider that because she had waived her right to appeal as part of her plea agreement.

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