Judge Cuts Sentence In Flying Cup Case

"I just kind of felt if it was someone else in a different situation, it wouldn't have happened like this," Stephens said. "The case shouldn't have gotten to this point."

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney George Elsasser argued during the trial and again yesterday that it wasn't what was thrown -- a McDonald's cup -- but the potential harm that it could have caused for the other driver. Pete Ballin, who was in the other car with his girlfriend, Eliza Fowle, was startled when the cup was thrown and stepped on the brakes, Elsasser said.

"It is a protective, proactive law," he said. "The alternative is a free-for-all out on the roads."

Commonwealth's Attorney Daniel M. Chichester's office released a statement after the sentencing, saying the jury's sentence sent the message that "if you endanger the traveling public, expect to be punished."

But Hall's public defender, Terence Patton, said he didn't believe that the case should have gone to a jury. A rock or a bullet as a missile, maybe, he said, but not a paper cup.

"We think it's outrageous that a paper cup would be considered a missile under these circumstances," he said.

He called Hall's parents, Jesse and Felicia Hall, to testify. Both said their daughter did not have a bad temperament, and that it has been difficult for them to care for the youngest two of her three children while she has been in jail.

Hall's husband, Cardell Carson, a corporal with the 2nd Marine Division, is serving in Iraq. Their home, on the military base at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C, has been empty since this ordeal began, Felicia Hall said.

Patton also submitted a letter that Fowle, who had received the bulk of the cup's contents, wrote on Hall's behalf.

She said that she stands by her decision to report the incident, believing that Hall's actions were potentially dangerous and certainly illegal, but that the punishment should fit the crime. She called the jury's sentence "excessive."

"Finally, while one can argue that incarceration may help to discourage others from this type of behavior, this would come at a very high price for Ms. Hall -- a price that in my opinion is too high," Fowle wrote. "Surely the publicity that this matter has already gotten should discourage any thoughtful person from following Ms. Hall's example."

When Hoss announced his decision, Hall was not the only one crying. Her family filled the third row of the courtroom. Porter wiped tears with one hand and held the hand of Hall's 6-year-old old daughter, Jania, with the other. Jania asked, "Is my mommy coming home?"

After the family was initially told it would take about three hours to release her, Hall's mom said jokingly: "It's easy in but hard out."

Just how hard it would be, she wouldn't know for a few hours more.

After family members waited in vain for Hall, jail officials took them inside the building and told them about the warrant.

"When we got in there, they pulled my wife and I in the back and we said, 'Here we go again,' " Jesse Hall said.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.