MADRAS — Their community had been shattered by the deaths, and now they stepped to the front of the courtroom to face the woman who killed them.

Dozens of people — teachers, athletic coaches, family and friends — filled the Jefferson County Circuit Court pews on Friday in the case of Audrey McHugh, 30, of Bend. Their measure of justice came in McHugh’s sentence: 25 years in prison for the Nov. 16, 2022, drunk driving crash on U.S. Highway 26 at the intersection of Dogwood Lane north of Madras.

McHugh pleaded no contest to three counts of manslaughter.

“Nothing will ever make this right. Nothing,” said Toni Made, grandmother of two of the victims, both teenagers. She added: “Three deaths. Three deaths. Three deaths. They’re gone forever.”

The head-on collision killed Warm Springs siblings Jesiah Johnson, 13, and Jessica Johnson, 15, who community members remember as strong athletes and strong students with bright futures. It also killed their aunt, Saralee Lorette Spino-McCormack, 29, who fought to save the forests as a wildland firefighter.

The community had rallied around the teens for years, ever since their own parents died in a murder suicide in 2016, said Jefferson County District Attorney Steve Leriche.

“They took a bad hand in life and they thrived,” Leriche said. “And when they died I think that hurt a lot of people in the community who had surrounded them and invested in them and were pulling for them.”

The sentencing followed a plea agreement between prosecutors and McHugh’s defense attorney, which meant that McHugh waived her right to a trial. On Friday, lawyers argued over whether McHugh was “extremely indifferent” prior to the crash, calling witnesses and showing photos and video.

Ultimately, Judge Annette Hillman sided with the prosecution, giving McHugh the maximum sentence.

“I’m struck that decisions in life are made in mere moments in time,” Hillman said, adding: “Ms. McHugh your decision that night impacted family, friends and a whole community.”

Standing before the courtroom, in tears, McHugh apologized. Her small frame barely filled her orange jail jumpsuit.

“All the regrets in the world can’t change the past,” she said. “I wish I could trade my life for theirs. To have another’s life on your hands is heavy on the soul, and I guarantee it will haunt me for a lifetime.”

The night of the crash, McHugh said she had two drinks prior to driving home to Bend from Portland, where she had spent the day at a hair appointment, according to court records filed Tuesday. But she added that digestive distress, caused by her gluten intolerance to a sandwich she ate, also caused her to make a risky pass because she needed to use the bathroom.

In court filings and in front of Hillman, Leriche provided different facts Friday.

McHugh had taken anxiety medication that day, which had labels against mixing with alcohol and driving because it could cause dizziness, he said. After the crash, McHugh told a paramedic that she felt “more out of it than normal and thinks it has to do with her new medication,” according to a memo Leriche filed in court.

On Friday, paramedic Jessica Haury testified she did not witness McHugh defecating herself after the crash and did not recall her needing to use a restroom.

At around 7:30 p.m. the night of the crash, McHugh was driving her Toyota Tacoma south on the highway through thick fog when she made a pass in heavy traffic, accelerating to upwards of 80 mph. Visibility was about 20 feet and the roads were icy, Oregon State Police Sgt. John Russo said, according to court records Leriche filed Friday.

Leriche played video in court that showed McHugh making two passes which prosecutors have described as risky. The second ended in the fatal crash.

The video came from Anelmo Ayala, a solar company employee whose dash cam footage recorded McHugh colliding with the Chevrolet sedan traveling north in the opposite lane. Country music played in the background of the video as Ayala can be heard saying: “Oh my god!”

Spino-McCormack had just picked up the kids from basketball practice. The crash killed her and Jesiah Johnson. Jessica Johnson died later from her injuries. As Leriche played the video Friday, many people in the courtroom began to cry, dotting their eyes and wrapping their arms around each other.

“You are so vain that you would rather endanger the lives of others than soil yourself,” Mary Kay Williams, whose son was dating Jessica Johnson, told McHugh.

In McHugh’s car, police found a six-pack of hard cider, with one can opened and empty on the floor. McHugh denied drinking while driving and said the can was old, but prosecutors said she also told law enforcement that she had had “a few sips” of hard cider earlier in the day.

McHugh’s blood tests after the crash showed she had a blood alcohol concentration of .04%, according to the defense. But prosecutors said that the blood alcohol test showed the rate was higher: 0.054%. A lab also found THC in her bloodstream.

Leriche noted in court that McHugh’s statements about her drinking that day changed three times. In court, he sought to demonstrate McHugh’s indifference by noting her statements to authorities after the crash, including questions about the whereabouts of her purse and the status of her car.

Erick Ward, McHugh’s defense attorney, acknowledged the harm that the tragedy had inflicted upon the community, but argued that McHugh had been misunderstood. He pointed out that she had no history of criminal acts or traffic violations.

In seeking a lighter sentence for his client, he maintained that McHugh’s gluten intolerance was a major factor in the crash. He described her as a young woman who was just beginning her career and had dreams of settling down with a man she loved.

“Ms. McHugh is not the person she has been portrayed as being,” Ward said.

The statements from victims conveyed brutally the impact of her actions.

Alvis Smith III, who coached both children and remembered how Jessica was tougher than the boys, said: “You took two great leaders, and we’re having to fill that void, and it’s taking all of us to do it.”

Mary Kay Williams, who remembered how her son’s health and schoolwork suffered since seeing his girlfriend die in the hospital, said: “Generations were taken from us.”

Krysta Rhoan, Spino-McCormack’s sister, who spoke about the holidays, weddings, high school graduations and birthdays the teens wouldn’t have, said: “All their lives were just beginning.”

But Hillman had the last words of the day.

“Ms. McHugh,” she said, “remember those three names.”