Deborah Wright, wife of Fayetteville City Councilman Larry Wright, is serving two years of probation and has lost her driver's license.

Deborah Jean Wright, the wife of Fayetteville City Councilman Larry Wright, pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor death by motor vehicle for killing Ricky Lee Armwood of Roseboro in a car crash in October 2017.

Armwood was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. He was delivering mail on Morganton Road in Fayetteville when Wright crashed into his mail truck. He was 58.

District Court Judge Scott Ussery sentenced Wright, 59, to 75 days in jail. But then he suspended the sentence and put her on two years of unsupervised probation — she won’t go to jail unless she violates her probation.

Ussery also suspended Wright’s driver's license for one year. After the license suspension ends, she can’t get it back until she has a medical exam that determines she will be medically fit to drive, Ussery said.

Ussery is the chief District Court judge for Bladen, Columbus and Brunswick counties. He was brought in to hear the case to avoid conflict-of-interest between the Wright family and Cumberland County’s elected judges. Similarly, a prosecutor from the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys handled the case instead of Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West’s office.

Wright’s sentencing came at the end of an emotional hearing in which Armwood’s family and coworkers spoke to the judge about their loss and demanded answers as to what caused the crash.

“What was she doing? That’s what I want to know,” said Markus Armwood, who is one of Ricky Armwood’s sons. “What were you doing? What did happen?”

The only answer offered in the courtroom: She had a lapse in her focus on her driving.

“The accident happened because Mrs. Wright was inattentive, wasn’t attentive enough,” said Allen Rogers, who represented Wright along with Jonathan Charleston. “She wasn’t attentive enough because she’s human, and humans have accidents,” he said.

Statements in court from prosecutor Lanny Freeman, from an interview with the Armwood family’s lawyer, Will Owen, and details in a Fayetteville police report of the crash paint this picture:

• On Oct. 31, 2017, Ricky Armwood was delivering mail to homes on Morganton Road and parked his mail truck in a travel lane across from the Fayetteville Academy. His lights were flashing. Morganton Road is five lanes wide there.

• Shortly before the crash, Wright had stopped her Dodge SUV at a stoplight close by. When the light turned green, she did not immediately start. Another driver behind her blew his horn to get her attention.

• A third driver noticed that Wright’s head was down as she drove. This driver drove around Armwood’s mail truck. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw Wright crash into the truck.

• The impact flipped the mail truck around and onto its side. Armwood, who was inside the truck, was ejected and crushed beneath it.

• The police examined Wright’s cell phone. There was no evidence of her texting or sending email while she was driving. Other apps were running in the background on her phone. It could not be concluded whether she was handling or looking at her phone at the time of the crash.

Wright lawyer Charleston described the crash as “a freak accident” and suggested that the truck flipped due to design flaws and because it was top heavy.

That offended postal workers in the courtroom and Armwood’s family.

“He was parked — big red, white and blue truck, flashers blinking — why didn’t she see him? Why didn’t she see him?” said Janice Armwood, Ricky’s widow.

Ricky Leon Armwood, Ricky Lee’s son, said Larry Wright called shortly after the crash and said Deborah had a medical condition. “If you have a medical condition, then you shouldn’t be driving,” Ricky Leon Armwood said.

Family members and postal workers told the judge they deeply miss Ricky Lee Armwood, and that his death left a hole in their lives.

As they spoke, Larry Wright sat and listened in the spectator area. He clasped his hands and sometimes bowed his head. Deborah Wright, sitting at the defense table, appeared to have little reaction. She did not look at the Armwoods and others as they talked to Ussery about Armwood.

But finally Wright had an opportunity to speak to them. She walks with a cane, and Charleston and Rogers helped her to her feet.

“I’d like to express that I am sorry for your grief and I’m sorry for the accident,” Wright said.

She understood their emotions — “If it was my husband, I’d be doing the same thing,” she said.

“But I'm sorry. That's all I can say,” she said.

Separate from the criminal case, the Armwoods last year sued Wright for the crash. The case was settled out of court, said Owen, the Armwoods’ lawyer.

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3512.