DEDHAM — Joe White, with his grandson by his side, pleaded Friday for a judge to hand out the harshest punishment possible for the woman who struck and killed his daughter with her car last year on a Stoughton street.
Karen Blau of Sharon plowed her vehicle into Joanne White, who was pregnant. White called out to her son to run to safety before she was killed.
Karen Blau, Joe White said, had deprived his 12-year-old grandson of his mother and robbed his daughter of the chance to watch the boy grow, graduate from school, and get married.
"Give this person . . . the maximum that the law allows so that she won't again be able to get the opportunity to do this and take this from our community, from the family, and from the world," said White, as he held a picture of his 35-year-old daughter.
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His grandson, Jahmare, and wife, Joan, were at his side in Norfolk Superior Court.
Judge Kenneth Fishman called Blau's conduct "horrifically reckless" and sentenced her to 5 years in state prison for motor vehicle manslaughter. The punishment is the minimum mandated by law for anyone convicted of that crime. She could have received up to 20 years in prison.
Blau, 47, gave a tearful response before sentencing, saying that she was "so sorry" as Jahmare White looked on with a framed picture of his mother in his lap. He did not speak.
"I lost my mother at 12 years old so I know what they're going through with Jahmare. You never forget," she said.
Blau said she's been thinking of Joanne White since being jailed last December after she violated the terms of her bail by testing positive for opiate and amphetamine use.
"I can't stop looking at Joanne's face because I ran for her," she said. "I tried to help her."
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The judge also ordered Blau to complete eight years of probation for her conviction on reckless endangerment of a child, and prohibited her from driving for 13 years. She was also found guilty of motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of liquor.
In delivering his sentence, Fishman said Blau did not have a history of criminal convictions, had a blood-alcohol level below the legal limit, and that the narcotics she was "likely taking" were prescribed. In Massachusetts, a person can be convicted of motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of liquor even with a blood-alcohol level below .08.
A jury convicted Blau on Wednesday of multiple charges tied to the crash. She was acquitted on two charges, including motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of drugs.
Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally had asked Fishman to impose a prison sentence of 10 to 12 years. Defense lawyer James J. Gavigan sought a 5-year sentence.
Joanne White and Jahmare were walking on a sidewalk on Lincoln Street in Stoughton at 8:45 p.m. on July 21, 2013, when the mother was struck by Blau's car, authorities have said.
Blau, who was visiting another home on Lincoln Street, backed her car out of a driveway, struck White across the street, and sideswiped a tree, prosecutors have said.
Lally said the tree Blau struck was the same one that Joanne White told her son, then 11, to run toward for safety.
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"I can't imagine what a frightening ordeal it was for Jahmare," Fishman said. "Miss White's courage in the face of danger in ensuring her son's safety was truly remarkable."
Joe White said the crash site is near the family home and that they "practically drive by there every day."
"It's hard for [Jahmare] to look up at the scene," he said.
Lally said Joanne White and Jahmare were "very, very close" and often walked together. Joan White described her daughter as "the girl that walked everywhere around town, even when we offered her rides."
"Miss White would walk always on the outside, closest to the road in protection of her son, and was on this occasion as well," Lally said.
Blau said that at the time of the crash, she was seeking her daughter, who she said was on an eight-day heroin binge. The accident occurred three months after Blau's nephew died of a heroin overdose, she said.
Blau said her daughter has struggled with heroin for five years. "I can't tell you how as a mother it feels to lose or go through this worry," she said.
Her family declined to comment after the sentencing.
Joan White said the sentencing means her family no longer has to think about Blau.
"We don't want to talk about her anymore," she said. "It's like she never existed to us."
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.