A 72-year-old woman pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter Thursday and was sentenced to six years in state prison for driving through a crosswalk while drunk in Hawthorne last year and killing the 15-month-old son of MMA fighter Marcus Kowal as he was pushed in his stroller.

During an emotional hearing at the Airport courthouse, Donna Marie Higgins was handcuffed and taken away to begin serving her sentence immediately for the Sept. 3, 2016, crash that killed Liam Kowal.

Higgins, who had no previous criminal record and had been free on bail, offered no apology in court, other than softly answering, “Guilty, your honor,” when Judge Yvette Verastegui asked her for her plea to one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

May be ‘life sentence’

“To be honest, I hope she doesn’t see daylight again,” Kowal said later. “We can’t change her. She is at the end of her life. This may have been a life sentence for her.”

Had Higgins not accepted a plea deal from prosecutors, she could have faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted of vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving, hit-and-run and other charges filed against her. Besides killing Liam, the crash seriously injured Liam’s 15-year-old aunt, Allison Bell, as she took Liam for a walk that afternoon.

Prosecutors alleged Higgins was drunk when she drove through a crosswalk on Hawthorne Boulevard at 133rd Street. Although no court hearings were held to publicly reveal details of the crime, Marcus Kowal told reporters outside the courthouse that Higgins’ blood-alcohol level registered at 0.12 percent with a breath test, and later 0.09 percent with a blood test, both over the legal limit for driving of 0.08.

Friends said she had spent the afternoon at the American Legion hall in Hawthorne.

After striking Bell and Liam, Higgins drove on until people who had witnessed the crash stopped her.

Sitting in the audience, Higgins appeared to close her eyes and sleep briefly as she sat in Verastegui’s courtroom waiting for proceedings to begin. Needing help from her daughter to rise from her chair when her case was called, Higgins walked slowly toward the defense table and appeared frail as she took her place next to her attorney, Richard Hutton.

A painful year

For Kowal and his wife, Mishel Eder, Thursday’s sentencing brought an end to a painful year that was marked with happiness two weeks ago when Eder gave birth to their second son, Nico. Higgins’ plea meant Allison Bell, Eder’s sister, would not have to relive what happened on the witness stand in court.

“I am relieved that this part of this nightmare is over and that finally (Higgins) is off the streets,” Eder said afterward. “She will not be free and she can’t hurt anybody else.”

In the courtroom, Kowal and Eder brought poster-size photographs of Liam to show the judge as they described the pain and sadness of losing their child.

“Because of her, my wife cries to sleep every night of her life,” Kowal said, as some friends sobbed loudly in the audience. “Because of her, we live with the worst pain known to mankind.”

Eder said she was enraged at Higgins after it happened, wondering how she could have driven after drinking, and why she drove away without stopping to help Liam and Bell, who she could have seen lying in the street in her rearview mirror.

“She is a mother herself,” Eder said. “I don’t understand how she could do that. … She did nothing. Nothing to help. She just tried to help herself.”

Can’t forgive her

Neither Kowal nor Eder said they could forgive Higgins.

“For 11 months, she’s walked around free while we have tried to navigate this rough terrain,” Eder said. “I long every day for my old life. I long every day for my baby back.”

In her statement, Bell said Liam was the first person she ever looked after. Although she recovered from her injuries, Bell said she remains afraid to cross streets. She blamed Higgins for making a “stupid decision” to drive and taking a baby’s life.

“There is no excuse for what she did,” Bell said. “It wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t an accident.”

Kowal said he felt relief when he heard the bailiff place the chains and handcuffs on Higgins to take her away. Asked if he was upset that Higgins did not apologize in court and received a six-year sentence, Kowal said he understood the realities of the law, but Higgins’ age played a factor. Kowal and Eder said they might feel different if Higgins was 30 or 40 years old, but she is over 70.

As Higgins was led away, she turned briefly to her right to look at her family members in the audience. Her view appeared to be blocked by attorneys standing ready for the courtroom’s next case.

Foundation created

Following Liam’s death, Kowal and Eder turned their attention to drunken driving, trying to bring more attention to it and lowering the blood-alcohol limit for driving. Their foundation, Liam’s Life, aims to cut drunken driving fatalities in half, decrease distracted driving, assist victims and their families, promote self-driving vehicles and interlock laws, and encourage organ donation.

“The American people have suffered long enough when it comes to drunk driving,” Kowal said. “All we ask is for people not to get behind the wheel so other parents don’t have to go through what we are going through.”