She pleaded guilty to three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in the deaths of her three boys, now Amber Turley will spend at least a year in jail. But this isn't setting well with the boys' father and his family who believes the children's lives were worth much more.
"There are no words to describe it, the loss of family." That's how James Turley sees the events of April 19th, the night his wife Amber Turley
drove their three boys Alex, Aaron and Anthony into Lake Brewer drowning them.
She answered for it in court. Turley cried while telling the judge
she had a few drinks and smoked marijuana the night of the accident. For her guilty plea to three counts of endangering the welfare of minors the judge sentenced Turley to six years each, four years suspended to run concurrently.
"The earliest she can be released is a year. They generally, as a rule, have to serve 50% of their sentence," says Tom Tatum the Conway County Prosecutor.
The Turley family says what they got here in the courtroom wasn't justice but Tatum says it was the best course of action under the circumstances.
James Turley says, "She should have got voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, vehicle manslaughter something. Child endangerment is what you get from smoking with your kids in the car, seem slight to me."
"Once we got the drug results probably had a lot of difficulty establishing that she was intoxicated beyond a reasonable doubt," says Tatum.
Test results revealed Amber Turley's blood alcohol content was below the legal limit with small traces of marijuana in her system.
The family hopes she comes back a changed woman, "As a person who thinks before she acts," says Pat Bradley the boys' great aunt.
They say her last thoughtless action broke their hearts.
After sentencing sheriff's deputies immediately took Turley into custody, she'll serve her time in a regional correctional facility.
