Woman sentenced to 4 years after killing a pedestrian walking dog in Woodbridge

A woman who pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter after she struck and killed a Woodbridge woman while walking her dog received her sentence today.

Cierra Faith Dickerson, 21, will serve four years in prison, in a young offender program, following the death of Deborah Lynn Talbot, killed on May 1, 2020, while walking on Cardinal Drive near her home.

Dickerson will be eligible for parole in three years, and the court will suspend her license for one year, Prince William County Circuit Court Judge Tracy Hudson ruled at a 1:30 p.m. sentencing hearing. Dickerson had faced up to seven years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter charge and a reckless driving charge.

“I’ve thought about this long and hard…I see no useful purpose of incarcerating you for years and years and years,” said Hudson.

Upon her release from a rehabilitation and anger management program, Hudson encouraged Dickerson to set an example for her peers and younger drivers. Despite a posted 45 mph speed limit, Dickerson traveled at 75 mph down Cardinal Drive when she struck and killed Talbot, said Prince William County Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Curt Baranyk.

Baranyk urged the judge to impose the seven-year maximum sentence. “Send a strong message to Ms. Dickerson, to the [Tablot] family, to the community this type of senseless behavior in a quasi-residential area is going to be taken seriously in Prince William County.”

Before Hudson delivered his sentence, Dickerson stood with a piece of paper in hand and, through tears, read an apology she wrote to the victim’s family.

“For the rest of my life, I will live with regret knowing that I caused her death,” Dickerson said, noting bouts of depression and anxiety she’s developed since the fatal crash. “I don’t deserve to be here…I always ask, why [Talbot]? Why not me instead?”

Dickerson pled guilty on July 1. There was no discussion today about Dickerson’s mood in the moments before the incident. However, Judge Hudson called Dickerson’s situation a case of “extreme recklessness driven by an explosion of tempers.”

Hudson provided insight into his decision to sentence Dickerson, an adult at the time of the crash, to the state’s young offender program. “Though 18 an adult in the eyes of the law, these folks are still young folks and aren’t going to make the wisest decisions.”

Members of the Talbot and Dickerson families packed the courtroom. Some took the witness stand to talk about how their lives changed in the year and a half since Talbot’s death.

“She was my everything. She was my whole life,” said Kevin Talbot, married to the victim for nearly 30 years. The two were high school sweethearts, shared two children, and had moved into their home off Cardinal Drive about a year before the crash.

Kevin Talbot had been walking with his wife that fateful day but turned back because he had to go to work. “I was there to protect her, and that day I didn’t,” said Talbot.

Their children Lauren and Justin also took the witness stand and said their family is now under financial stress after the loss of their mother. “My mother was our best friend…she was our world everything revolved around her,” said Lauren Talbot, holding back tears.

Wesley Dickerson, the felon’s father, told the court his daughter was remorseful and expressed condolences to the Talbots. He described his daughter as someone who loved her family and friends, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and the Urban League, and an assistant Sunday School teacher.

“She wasn’t a party girl,” he said. “One day, she hopes the Talbot family can find it in their hearts to forgive her.”

In the back of the courtroom, Prince William County Supervisor Victor Angry, the lone elected official in the room representing the residents that live in the neighborhood where the crash occurred, looked on. In the months following the collision, Angry ordered the county police department to conduct a speed study of Cardinal Drive, a five-mile, four-lane cut-through linking the middle of Prince William County to its east side on Route 1 in Woodbridge.

According to the study, speeding is not a problem for most drivers. Vowing to take action in the wake of Talbot’s death, Angry said he would work with members of the General Assembly for a law that will allow the county to install speed cameras on this and other streets where cars have struck and killed pedestrians.