She was described as a kind and gentle soul. But Catherine Callahan's life surely didn't end that way.

The 66-year-old North Side woman was killed on March 8, 2006, when a speeding, drunken driver struck her as she stepped into the intersection at Liberty Avenue and 29th Street in the Strip District.

The driver, Casandra Gatewood of McKeesport, didn't stop, and instead dragged Ms. Callahan for half a block, severing her leg.

Ms. Gatewood, who pleaded guilty in November to homicide by vehicle while DUI and speeding, was sentenced on Tuesday to spend three to six years in prison, to be followed by five years probation.

Though no one from Ms. Callahan's family spoke at the sentencing, her brother, Dennis P. Callahan, submitted a letter explaining what her death has meant to him.

"She should be enjoying her retirement now," Mr. Callahan wrote.

Instead, he told Allegheny County Judge Randal B. Todd that he is haunted by how his sister died.

"Visualizing how her body was torn apart and how it rolled over the car, the body so badly bruised and broken that we had to have a closed casket funeral," he wrote. "It seemed as if Cathy disappeared off the face of the earth that day."

He criticized Ms. Gatewood for failing to express any remorse to his family, and said she attempted to deny responsibility for what she did from the second the incident happened.

She fled the scene, then she attempted to water down her urine sample, he wrote. She claimed to have only had two or three drinks, though her blood alcohol content was .198, and she even tried to blame his sister for stepping in front of her car, Mr. Callahan continued.

Ms. Gatewood was arrested a short time after the crash. Witnesses at the scene were able to record her license plate number, and police found her in the Hill District.

At her sentencing Tuesday, Ms. Gatewood apologized. She was immediately taken into custody.

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