Virginia Woman Gets 18 Years For Hitting Husband With Her Car Causing Fatal Injury [Video]

A woman has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for running over her husband with a vehicle in Norfolk, Virginia, and leaving him in a coma with critical injuries that eventually led to his death more than a year later.

35-year-old Bashirah Shamirah Tripp was given 18 years with an additional 12 years suspended conditional on good behavior and completion of five years’ probation.

On August 6, 2020, Tripp and her husband, James Irving Johnson Jr., got into an argument at Janaf shopping center. At some point during the altercation, Tripp threw some of Johnson’s belongings out of the car. She then drove off without her husband in the vehicle.

Tripp returned a few minutes later while Johnson was on the phone. At that moment, he stepped out into the road, not seeing his wife, and she then struck him with her car.

The crash’s impact threw Johnson into the air and caused him to hit his head on the ground. His skull was broken, and he sustained a severe brain injury that eventually led to his death.

Tripp then hit two other cars after hitting Johnson. She then got out of the car and yelled at her unconscious husband, and beat him with the car’s bumper, which had broken off due to the crash.

During her arrest, Tripp told police, she was going to leave Johnson but then — in a rage — turned the car around and hit him.

Johnson languished in a coma for the last 15 months of his life. He underwent multiple surgeries and lived with a feeding tube until he died from his injuries in October 2021.