I am writing to express my concern over Ricky Carter getting
out of jail. See, I was in 8th grade when the girls died. I
looked up to them very much. It was my first year of
cheerleading and they were on the varsity cheerleading team.
That December we had a huge community pep rally and my
sister and I got to preform with the girls that night. I
remember I was so happy because I looked up to them and we
did everything perfect that night. I also remember the night
they died.
I woke up that morning and my mom came into my room with
the news paper and said "I am so sorry to tell you this, but
Stacy Lee and Whitney Welch have died in a car wreck. Mandi
and Lacey were with them." I could not believe what I just
heard. I just laid in my bed and cried for two hours. I got
up and went to church to try to find out what I could about
the wreck and pray. My friend Emily Walker and I with my
sister sat in our church sanctuary and cried and prayed. We
prayed for the families and the girls. We soon found out a
couple of days later about Mandi and then Lacey.
It is very hard for a young girl to lose four of the people
she looks up to in a matter of days over AN IGNORANT
decision to DRINK AND DRIVE. I was only in 8th grade. After
that, the ones of us on the jr. high squad cheered with the
ones left on the varsity squad. It was not the same. It hurt
every game, every day, because we knew we could not be
anything like they were. And to not see them on the court,
or Whitney cheering with us was very painful.
To lose people that you love is very hard, especially when
it is four people close to you, in a matter of days, during
what is suposed to be the happiest time of the year. I
remember the funerals very well, all of them. I still to
this day go to the graveyard and spend time at their graves,
bring them ceramic angels, and visit. I know that any of
those girls could have been my sister, my cousin, or my best
friend.
So I beg of you to please keep this man in jail. People kill
one person and get life, he took four wonderful, beautiful,
intelligent girls away from us in a matter of seconds, over
a stupid, ignorant, meaningless decision. And he only got 20
years at most? That is ridiculous!!!
I am 24 years old, and I still have not, and will
not forget what happened that December night in 1998.
What happend that night has effected what I do, and what I
see others do every day.
Please do this community and the families of these girls
justice and KEEP RICKY CARTER IN JAIL!!!!!!