HAVERHILL — The Lyons family calls it closure.
The driver in a hit-and-run that severely injured 29-year-old Haverhill native Kaitlin Lyons in California last year has been sent to prison for four years and four months.
Laurie Lyons of Haverhill said her daughter attended Friday's hearing at a court in Santa Ana, Calif., in which Victor Valdez, 19, of Fullerton, Calif., received the prison sentence. A jury found him guilty of leaving the scene of an accident with gross bodily injury.
"He (Valdez) has no remorse, doesn't care about Kaitlin or her struggles and just cares about himself,'' Laurie Lyons said. "He's in jail now. He's paying for what he did and we are moving on."
Kaitlin Lyons, a standout athlete and 1997 graduate of Haverhill High, was crossing the street to her apartment in Fullerton, Calif., just before 10 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2008. She was struck by a car and thrown 50 feet, police said. They said the driver failed to stop. Lyons was carrying no identification so she remained a Jane Doe in the hospital for several days until concerned coworkers called police and reported her missing.
She suffered five broken ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung, a broken scapula and clavicle, a bruised spleen, facial injuries and major head trauma.
Police said a witness who saw the accident described the Chevrolet Cavalier to investigators, who found it a short distance away with no one inside. Police said the car was owned by Valdez's employer, who told them he did not know where Valdez was.
Police issued an arrest warrant for Valdez, who was then 18 years old. He spent four months in hiding in Oklahoma before surrendering to police on June 19, 2008, investigators said.
Meanwhile, Kaitlin Lyons' parents were by her side, encouraging her to remain committed to her rehabilitation.
"We focused on Kaitlin the whole time and our positive thinking helped her to heal and to move forward," Laurie Lyons said yesterday.
She said that after months of rehabilitation her daughter is back in California at her old job coaching youth swimming.
"She's in a new apartment and she is doing really well," Laurie Lyons said. "They said she was a miracle girl in the beginning and she proved them right."
A graduate of Springfield College and California State University at Fullerton, Lyons was working as a youth swimming coach. At the time she was hit, she was training for an Ironman-type competition, said her parents, Laurie and Michael Lyons.
They shared their daughter's story with the public through The Eagle-Tribune. It prompted many local people to write notes of support on a blog that allowed them to communicate with the Lyons family.
Laurie Lyons said that during her daughter's stay at home, from April 2008 to January of this year, she worked hard every day at getting better and stronger.
"It did take the whole two years to heal, but even now we can see that she continues to get better. Her recovery was just amazing and more than the doctors ever thought she would achieve. She's not someone who says 'I can't do it.'"
Laurie Lyons praised the district attorney's office that prosecuted the case saying prosecutor Keith Burke constantly kept her family informed of the case and how it was going.
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