Background: River Road in Selkirk, N.Y. (Google Maps). Inset (left): Jacklyn Parker (Albany County District Attorney”s Office). Inset (right): Colleen Selkirk (Babcock Funeral Home).

Twenty-five-year-old Jacklyn Parker, after admitting guilt this past July, faced charges of criminally negligent homicide. This admission came almost a year after the incident that claimed the life of 60-year-old Colleen Selkirk in a head-on collision in Selkirk, New York. According to details released by the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, on August 19, 2024, Parker was driving on River Road with a passenger when she experienced an epileptic seizure. This caused her vehicle to cross into oncoming traffic, where it collided with Selkirk’s car.

Both Parker and her passenger were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, while Selkirk tragically lost her life at the crash site.

The District Attorney’s office highlighted that Parker had been explicitly advised by her physician not to drive if she skipped her medication. Following the accident, Parker disclosed to law enforcement that she had not taken her medication for over a week, leading to the seizure that resulted in the deadly crash.

The DA’s office said that Parker was “warned by her doctor that she could not operate a vehicle if she failed to take medication.” After the crash, Parker admitted to police that she had not taken her medication for more than a week. She had a seizure seconds before crashing into Selkirk.

After Parker entered her plea on July 15, she was scheduled to be sentenced in September. However, she was charged with DWI the same month, which prosecutors asked the judge to consider when handing down Parker’s sentence on Monday.

According to courtroom reporting by local NBC affiliate WNYT, Parker apologized to Selkirk’s family before her sentence was handed down. Selkirk’s daughter, Katherine Giordano, also spoke at the hearing, asking, “How do you explain to children so little, who loved their Nana so much, that they will never see her again? [One child] still sometimes asks me if her Nana is ‘feeling better yet.’”

Parker was sentenced to 16 months to four years in prison, slightly more than the one to three years that was originally going to be handed down.