For negligently causing a fatal crash north of Powell in March, a Cowley woman will lose a year’s worth of driving privileges, pay a fine and be held responsible for the deceased’s funeral costs.

Beverly O. Keenan, 77, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of vehicular homicide at a Tuesday hearing in Park County Circuit Court in Powell.

On March 21, Keenan ran through the stop sign at the intersection of Lane 5 and Wyoming Highway 295 at a speed between 40 and 55 miles an hour, charging documents indicate. Her westbound Toyota Corolla smashed into the side of a southbound Subaru station wagon being driven by 70-year-old Patricia “Pat” Miller. Miller died at the scene.

Keenan testified by phone on Tuesday that “an unexpected sneezing fit” caused her to run through the stop sign.

By pleading guilty to vehicular homicide, she acknowledged having driven “in a criminally negligent manner.” Roughly paraphrased, criminal negligence is when a person fails to realize their actions pose “a substantial and unjustifiable risk” and deviates from what a reasonable person would do in that situation.

Keenan later said to Miller’s family members that, “if there was anything I could do to go back, I would. Absolutely anything.”

As part of a plea agreement approved by Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters, Keenan must pay $1,190 to the court and pay the $3,835.08 cost of Miller’s funeral if her insurer does not. Another misdemeanor charge of running a stop sign was dismissed.

Keenan will be on unsupervised probation for the next year, with the possibility of 360 days of jail time hanging over her head if she were to drive. Waters said putting Keenan in jail now “would not be beneficial to anyone.”

Miller’s family expressed disappointment that Keenan — who has what a prosecutor has called “a really lengthy history of some driving issues” — wasn’t receiving a stiffer sentence or losing her license for good.

As she described the impact of losing her mother, Karalee Warren said she doesn’t want another family to go through what they have.

“If you put this woman (Keenan) into a 2,000-pound vehicle you’re guaranteeing that someone else will be hurt or killed,” son Rick Miller told Waters, adding, “To allow this woman to drive another mile would be a flagrant disservice to this community.”

Rick Miller also said he didn’t believe Keenan had taken the case very seriously.

Judge Waters said he shared some of those concerns.

“I’ve wondered from time to time if Ms. Keenan fully appreciates the significance of this particular matter, because I have had that feeling — that Ms. Keenan’s more worried about herself than ... somebody else that was killed, or the family members who have been hurt as a result of this,” the judge said.

Waters said he also has “some real reservations” about Keenan ever driving again, but noted that decision will be up to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

Over the objections of Keenan and her defense attorney, Judge Waters had limited Keenan’s driving to medical appointments when the criminal case began in July.

On Tuesday, shortly after the judge said there would be no driving at all over the coming year, Keenan asked if she could drive to a couple of medical appointments in December.

“Is there any way to let me go to those?” Keenan asked.

Waters said she’d need to find someone to take her.

Data compiled by the Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and included in court records says that, between July 1999 and April 2015, law enforcement officers warned or cited Keenan for her driving or vehicle about 20 times.

That includes an incident about two weeks after the fatal crash, in which someone in the Cody area apparently misstook Keenan for a drunk driver and called in a complaint to law enforcement. She ended up receiving a warning about the need to stay within a single lane, according to the records.

In a filing, defense attorney Michael Messenger of Messenger & Overfield disputed the picture painted by the compilation. He said it overstated Keenan’s driving record and argued Keenan had driven a substantial number of miles over those 16 years while only receiving three or four actual tickets.

Beyond their frustration with Keenan, Miller’s family spoke of how the fatal crash changed their lives.

“It hurts the most that there was no closure. She was just gone,” Rick Miller said. “I didn’t get to tell her what a great mother she was, or how much I loved her, or how proud I was to be her son.”

In addition to her time with family, Pat Miller worked and volunteered at the Powell library, used her experience as a breast cancer survivor to assist Park County Relay for Life and, as a U.S. Air Force veteran, helped lead the local American Legion post. She also helped many other organizations and was named an honorary Powell High School graduate in 2014.

“There wasn’t much she wasn’t involved in,” said Miller’s widower, Dick Miller.

At the close of Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Waters said his heart goes out to Miller’s family for their loss.

“It’s not just the family,” responded Dick Miller. “It’s the whole town.”