A Texas court sentenced Lynlee Pollis to seven years in prison for a September 2023 drunken-driving crash that killed 19-year-old Southern Methodist University student Honor Wallace and injured Wallace’s passenger, Catherine “CeCe” Solberg. Pollis, 30, was convicted of intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault, according to The Dallas Morning News, which was cited in the supplied report.
State District Judge Jennifer Balido also ordered Pollis to serve 10 years of probation after prison. During each year of probation, Pollis must spend 15 days in jail. The Dallas Morning News reported that some of those jail dates fall on birthdays of the victims, Pollis and the anniversary of the crash.
The sentence followed about three hours of jury deliberation after a trial lasting roughly two and a half weeks. Pollis’s attorneys had asked the court to impose probation rather than prison, citing her lack of prior felony convictions. Defense attorney Scott Palmer described her in closing arguments as a “good person who made a terrible decision.”
The crash occurred on Sept. 24, 2023, in Dallas. Wallace was driving a Volkswagen Jetta through an intersection on a green light when Pollis’s Lexus SUV struck it. Wallace was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Solberg, who was riding in the Jetta, sustained a shoulder injury and concussion and was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, the newspaper reported.
Prosecution experts testified that Pollis was traveling about 67 mph in a 35-mph zone and went through a traffic signal that had been red for at least five seconds. The report says blood testing found Pollis’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.294%, compared with Texas’s legal limit of 0.08%.
An arrest affidavit described officers observing glassy eyes, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol when they spoke with Pollis at the hospital. Pollis’s dog, a husky named Tequila, was in the vehicle and was not injured.
During victim impact statements, both families addressed Pollis. Solberg’s father, Bobby Solberg, criticized her for making the families endure the trial and said he had seen no personal accountability from her. Wallace’s father, David Wallace, told Pollis to acknowledge responsibility for his daughter’s death. The supplied report does not include a response from Pollis during the sentencing statements.
