Skye Luland, left, and Kazzandra Widders were killed after Linda Britton hit them with her car at a Nambucca Heads parking lot. Photo / Supplied
Skye Luland, left, and Kazzandra Widders were killed after Linda Britton hit them with her car at a Nambucca Heads parking lot. Photo / Supplied
A NSW mother who killed her own daughter and another woman when she ran her car over them during a frenzied parking lot brawl has been jailed for at least three years.
Linda Britton stood trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court last year where she was found guilty oftwo counts of manslaughter over the deaths of her daughter Skye Luland, 24, and another woman Kazzandra Widders, 20.
Luland and Widders both died during a massive brawl in the parking lot of a Nambucca Heads shopping centre on September 28, 2019.
Britton was behind the wheel when she hit and killed both women.
The court heard that Luland and Widders were on the ground fighting as part of a massive brawl when she drove the car at them, crushing them to death.
She pleaded not guilty to manslaughter arguing her actions were in defence of her daughter, who she feared was going to be seriously harmed or killed.
But she was found guilty by a jury.
The court heard that Luland and Widders were involved in a separate altercation earlier in the evening before violence between the two groups erupted in the parking lot.
Linda Britton (centre) was found guilty of the manslaughter of her daughter and another woman at Nambucca Heads on the NSW Mid North Coast on September 28. Photo / NCA NewsWire/Simon Bullard.
Judge Sarah Huggett described the atmosphere inside the parking lot as “charged, chaotic and frightening”.
Britton later told police that she intended to nudge Widders off Luland with her bumper bar.
Skye Luland, left, and Kazzandra Widders were killed after Linda Britton hit them with her car at a Nambucca Heads parking lot. Photo / Supplied
She said that she was worried for her daughter’s life because she saw Widders standing over Luland throwing multiple punches.
After the fatal collision, both women had to be freed from under the Daewoo.
Despite attempts to revive them, both were declared dead at the scene.
Judge Huggett said the decision to drive at the two women was “spur of the moment” made in “extreme panic” in a “volatile and frightening atmosphere”.
Britton was sentenced to six years in jail, with a non-parole period meaning she could be released from jail as early as January 2026.
Several members of Widders’ family reacted angrily and emotionally after Britton’s sentence as read out.
