794 crash, Milwaukee girl killed; woman sentenced, 4 years probation
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee County judge sentenced Zaneah Spadaro on Wednesday, Nov. 22 to four years of probation in connection with a fatal crash that killed her own sister on State Highway 794 in Cudahy last May.
Spadaro pleaded guilty in July to a charge of knowingly operating without valid license-cause death. But on Wednesday, the state asked for that plea to be vacated. The court agreed to that request.
Prosecutors then submitted an amended complaint that included a new charge of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle-having a detectable controlled substance in blood. Spadaro then pleaded guilty to that second charge.
Zaneah Spadaro
Case details
According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a rollover accident at State Highway 794 at Pennsylvania Avenue around 2 a.m. Sunday, May 21. When deputies arrived on the scene, they found a car off the roadway in a ditch. The complaint says a 14-year-old girl was lying outside the vehicle -- and the defendant, the 14-year-old's sister, was attempting lifesaving measures, "exclaiming that she was sorry she had taken her sister's life." Medical personnel arrived on the scene, but the 14-year-old was pronounced deceased on the scene. She was later identified by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office as Zamari Spadaro.
Medical examiner dispatched to 794 at Pennsylvania Avenue
The complaint says the scene of the crash is in the area of a curve where 794 ends. Deputies examined the area and "determined that the Chevy had failed to successfully execute the curve and had left the roadway in the curve, going onto the grass and flipping over completely," the complaint says. The 14-year-old girl "had been unbuckled in the car," the complaint says.
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When deputies questioned the defendant, she told them "she had been driving the car at a fast pace southbound on 794 and failed to see the curve until it was too late. She tried to brake and turned the wheel, but the car ended up flipping," the complaint says.