Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A Howell man has been sentenced in connection with a hit-and-run that left a local teen severely injured and paralyzed – as the two-year anniversary of the crash approaches next week.

40-year-old James Lawrence Shaheen was sentenced last week in Livingston County Circuit Court to six months in jail and 18 months of probation. He earlier pleaded guilty to a single felony count of failure to stop at the scene of a serious personal injury accident.

Then 18-year-old Gabriella Golden of Fenton is a 2024 Hartland graduate who had just started her freshman year at college that August.

On October 22nd of 2024, she was hit by a vehicle near the Cromaine District Library on Hartland Road and critically injured. She had been longboarding down the hill southbound in the roadway when Shaheen’s vehicle collided with her – reportedly because he had been petting his dog and crossed the center line.

The police report was previously provided to WHMI and stated a 911 caller reported a female lying in the middle of the road. Shaheen left the scene but was identified as a possible suspect. He contacted authorities the next day to say he struck a pedestrian and fled the scene because he was scared.

Golden is now 20-years-old, paraplegic, in a wheelchair, and disabled for the rest of her life.

Golden’s mother Tara Minton spoke during the sentencing. She told WHMI “Honestly, I don’t think six months is enough time. Because in six months, he’ll get out and be able to live a normal life again….and my daughter is not. Her life is changed forever”.

Minton acknowledged that her daughter should not have been skateboarding that night. “I agree. She knows that and she regrets her decision that night, and she has to pay for that decision for the rest of her life and he only has to for six months, I just, I just don’t see the justice in that.

Minton said her daughter is doing ok, but said it wasn’t just the spinal fracture she suffered. She also has a traumatic brain injury from the crash and has had to undergo a couple surgeries in the past year that couldn’t be done right away.

A message seeking comment was placed by WHMI with Shaheen’s attorney.