Woman jailed for car crash and assault

A WOMAN who deliberately drove into another car on a Toowoomba street causing a woman permanent injuries and then attacked a friend with a baseball bat and knife some months later has been jailed for five years.

Danni-Lee Howe had been driving on Herries St about 2pm, May 20, 2018, when she drove into the path of a 4WD coming the other way, Toowoomba District Court heard.

Both vehicles sustained significant damage in the collision and a woman in the 4WD sustained serious injuries and to date can’t use her left arm, Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court.

Howe sustained injuries as well and required surgery for a fractured knee cap and a number of broken ribs, she said.

It was found Howe was under the influence of a cocktail of prescription and illicit drugs including methylamphetamine, Ms Petrie said.

Howe, now 24, pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing grievous bodily harm while intoxicated arising from that incident.

About 10 months after that incident, Howe had been with a male friend on the evening of February 21, 2019, when the man quipped that he may as well leave as Howe wasn’t about to give him sex.

Both had been injecting drugs and the man had left but Howe called him on his phone and told him to return.

When he came to the door, she had struck him to the head with a baseball bat until the bat broke and then she had punched him.

Thinking he had laughed at her, Howe then stabbed the man with a steak knife in the leg above the knee.

For that incident she pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.

Her barrister Jessica Goldie told the court her client had mental health issues for which she was now medicated.

Judge Tony Rafter sentenced Howe to five years in jail but ordered she be eligible for release on parole on February 18, 2022.