CLEVELAND COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – A Cleveland County woman was sentenced to seven years in prison after she hit a woman retrieving her mail and left her there.

Forty-year-old Misti Miller sped off as Charlene Hughes’ hair was still embedded in her windshield.

Thursday, the state pointed out Miller’s license had been suspended several times and said she shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place.

“It feels pretty good, and I’m grateful for all the help along the way,” Charlene Hughes said.

Charlene Hughes came out of a Cleveland County courtroom cracking a smile. It’s something she and her husband can’t say they’ve done in awhile.

Charlene is paralyzed from the neck down and bound to a wheelchair. This tragic result came from the hands of 40-year-old Misti Miller when she got behind the wheel of her car one day last May.

“It’s 12 steps across the street, and every step reminds me of what happened when she went to the mailbox,” Jim Hughes said.

On May 21, 2018, Charlene took an innocent trip to the end of her driveway.

A dark-colored car driven by Miller hit Charlene and threw her into the air.

The chaos was caught on camera by another driver passing by as Miller sped off.

Miller didn’t turn herself into police until the next day after making a call to her attorney.

“This is an accident,” Miller’s attorney Scott Adams said. “It’s a highway. There’s no crosswalk. There’s no drugs and alcohol and no evidence of speed.”

Miller told police she had an excuse.

“I didn’t see anything,” Miller said. “I was blinded by the sun.”

But Charlene’s body shattered the glass and strands of her hair were left behind on the windshield.

Miller told a Cleveland County judge she thought it was roadkill.

“Yeah, but I’ve hit a turkey before, I mean,” Miller told police.

That so-called roadkill was Charlene struggling to survive.

Her brain was bleeding and her vertebrae was fractured in multiple places.

More than one year later, Charlene watched as a judge sentenced Miller to seven years in prison.

After Miller finishes her prison sentence, she will have to serve a 10 year suspended sentence. During that sentence, she will have to spend 24 hours in the Cleveland County Jail every May 21st as a reminder of what happened that day in May of 2018.

Back in 2013, Miller was also supposed to turn herself in to federal prison for forgery and identity theft.

Miller said she couldn’t show up because her parents’ home was destroyed in the May 2013 tornado outbreak in Moore.

The FBI looked into it and realized it was all a lie.