Raleigh woman pleads guilty to second-degree murder in 2015 wreck

Latisha Dixon, 33, of Mindspring Drive, was driving a Dodge Stratus south on New Hope Road toward Rock Quarry Road on the morning of March 8. She drifted across the center line and crashed head-on into a Hyundai Sonata driven by Terrance Tyreek Smallwood.

Smallwood died later at the hospital.

Investigators determined she had a blood alcohol content of .15, and officials believed she was texting at the time of the wreck.

Dixon pleaded guilty second-degree murder and driving while impaired and was sentenced to 120-156 months in prison.

Her attorney said she is deeply remorseful.

"(Dixon) fully accepts not only what she did to that family, but to her own family," Dewey O'Kelley, Dixon's defense attorney said in court. "She feels that to the core. I'm convinced of that."

Prosecutor Jason Waller read a letter in court from the victim's mother.

"I myself wanted to give up on life when I lost my son, but I knew my children needed me," Waller said. "Terrance Tyreek Smallwood will never be forgotten. His spirit will always live on through his brothers and sisters. You can take this time in prison you have been given and think why you shortened my son's life."

Dixon has a prior DWI conviction in Sampson County from June 5, 2012.

"She intends to do the best she can, make the most of the time she has to serve," O'Kelley said of Dixon.