Drunken Driver Gets 10 Years

.c The Associated Press

POMONA, Calif. (AP) -- A drunken driver got 10 years in prison Friday in the case of a Jehovah's Witness who died of her injuries after she refused blood transfusions.

Keith Cook, 32, was convicted of manslaughter in December in the death of Jadine Russell. He was acquitted of murder. The defense argued that the woman caused her own death by adhering to her religious beliefs. But medical testimony indicated she probably would not have survived even if she had gotten blood. Mrs. Russell, 55, was standing on the side of the road with police after a minor car accident last 1998 when Cook slammed his pickup truck into a parked car, pushing the vehicle into her. She suffered broken bones and severe bleeding but told emergency workers and doctors ``No blood!'' at least 10 times, and even tried to pull out an intravenous line.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe there is a biblical basis for refusing other people's blood.

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