A drugged driver who crashed before leaving his partner to die in Perth has been jailed for 11 years.
Jahleel Berryman, 28, was behind the wheel of a stolen BMW when he ran a red light at 127km/h in Balga on April 12 last year.
The car then crashed into another car and rolled.
Berryman fled the scene on foot, leaving his partner, 31-year-old Kerry Bodney, to die.
“My sister was dying, looking for her lover and he ran away like a coward,” her brother Craig Bodney said.
Two other passengers were seriously injured.
Berryman was driving unlicensed and high on meth and cannabis. His passengers had been screaming at him to slow down.
Justice Bruno Fiannaca described it as dangerous driving of the most egregious kind, saying Berryman’s passengers were in obvious fear for their lives, but he had ignored them.
Berryman was sentenced today to 11 years in jail and will be eligible for parole after serving nine years.
He’s also banned from driving for a decade once he’s released.
“She was a good person, kind-hearted, gave this boy everything she had,” Bodney said.
“He didn’t appreciate it, to leave her dying on the side of the road,”
Bodney’s manslaughter is another tragic turn for her family after her two-year-old son, Robert, was shaken to death in 2012 by her then-partner Wayne Murray Narkle.
