A heartbroken mother recalls a hug that she'll "never forget" after picking up the body of her dead baby from the side of a highway after the child was flung over 150 feet from the car as the result of a drunk driver crashing into their car at 141 mph.
Shalorna Warner says she's a "broken, childless mother" after losing her son Zackary Blades and her sister, his aunt, Karlene Warner. The 8-month-old child was found by another driver who let out a "painful scream" once he spotted the child lying on the pavement.
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The mother says she knew instantly when she found him that her child was dead.
At the sentencing of Darryl Anderson, the drunk driver, she told him she "will never live a normal life again." Anderson was sentenced to 17 years and three months in prison for two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
During her victim impact statement the mother shared, "I heard a painful scream from the lorry driver crying: 'Oh no, he’s here — your baby’s here.' I jumped over to find my baby lying on the edge of the grass of the motorway."
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"I knew instantly. I had to pick my dead baby up from the side of the road," she continued. "I hugged him so tight, a hug I will never forget. No words will surmount the irreparable hole that has been left in my heart and in my life."
"Zackary was my rainbow baby — he was the light at the end of a tunnel of a very dark time for me and brought joy, happiness, and laughter into my life. My baby’s future, my future, our life together, has been stolen from me. I won’t ever see him look up and smile at me again. I won’t have that luxury," she said.
"Instead, every second of every day I relive that night over and over again in my head, thinking what did my innocent little boy do to deserve this? And for my sister, Karlene, I just have no words. I am so sorry this happened to you. It’s hard to process something that doesn’t seem real — it just feels like I am living a nightmare," the grieving mother continued.
“I will feel the ripples of this pain for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I will be able to get through this — I am scarred, I am traumatized, I am petrified to live my life," she stated. "The impact of these events will amplify the hard times and taint any good moment I may possibly have, because within my heart lives Zackary and Karlene, and I will never live a normal life again without them."
Speaking to Judge Joanne Kidd, she begged that the drunk driver be sentenced to life. "Your Honour, I stand before you today a broken shell of a woman and a childless mother. But this guilt is not mine to bear — this guilt is owed to the person that caused this infinite agony," Warner said.
"I hope the pain of this weighs them down for all eternity. Nothing will bring my son and my sister back to me. The only way forward for myself is if the defendant faces the same sentence I am facing — life," she ended. "The irony of it all is that I will never see my loved ones again, but he will."
