Drunk Driver Who Killed SMU Student Honor Wallace Gets 7 Years, Plus Yearly Jail on the Crash Anniversary

Lynlee Pollis, the 30-year-old driver whose drunken crash killed 19-year-old Southern Methodist University student Honor Wallace, was sentenced on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, to seven years in prison. And when she gets out, the punishment keeps going: State District Judge Jennifer Balido ordered 10 years of probation after her release, with 15 days in jail every year, some of them timed to fall on the victims’ birthdays, Pollis’s own birthday and the anniversary of the crash.

A Dallas County jury convicted Pollis of intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault on October 12, after a trial that began September 28. Intoxication manslaughter carries up to 20 years in Texas, and intoxication assault up to 10.

Sixty-seven in a thirty-five, on a red light

The crash happened on the afternoon of September 24, 2023, at Monticello Avenue and the North Central Expressway service road. According to FOX 4’s reporting on the case, Pollis was driving north in a Lexus SUV when she ran a red light and slammed into the Volkswagen Jetta Honor Wallace was driving through a green light.

Wallace, a sophomore from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, who was studying English and Spanish, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Her friend and passenger, Catherine “CeCe” Solberg, broke her collarbone, suffered a concussion and was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. Pollis had minor injuries. Her husky, named Tequila, was in the SUV and was not hurt.

Prosecution experts testified that Pollis was traveling about 67 mph in a 35 mph zone and went through a light that had been red for at least five seconds. Post-crash testing put her blood alcohol concentration at 0.294 percent, nearly four times the 0.08 legal limit in Texas.

Pollis told police she was driving home with her dog from Mutts Canine Cantina, a dog park and bar in Dallas’s West Village, and that she had drunk a margarita infused with tequila shots and had taken ADHD medication. Detectives who interviewed her at the hospital reported glassy eyes, slurred speech and the odor of alcohol. FOX 4 reported that she admitted running the red light.

During the punishment phase, NBC DFW reported, a Dallas police investigator testified about Pollis’s social media posts referencing alcohol, including an Instagram account for the dog, named “Tequila” after “the best drink in the world.”

A family that never gets her back

Honor Wallace’s mother told the court her daughter spoke French and Spanish fluently and wanted to become a lawyer. After the crash, SMU’s vice president for student affairs, Dr. KC Mmeje, said in a statement: “Honor was a valued member of our community.”

The fathers of both young women spoke directly to Pollis in their victim impact statements. Bobby Solberg, CeCe’s father, was blunt about the trial itself: “You were so drunk, and you wouldn’t admit it. You made us sit through this [trial] for three weeks.” He added: “We’ve seen no personal accountability from you.”

David Wallace, Honor’s father, was just as direct: “You took the most precious gift from us through your selfishness. Own it. Own what you did.”

The defense wanted probation

Pollis’s lawyers asked for probation instead of prison, pointing out that she had no prior felony convictions. Defense attorney Scott Palmer told jurors in closing arguments that she was a “good person who made a terrible decision.”

Her father testified that she had struggled since the crash and since her mother’s sudden death from illness last year, and that she is “not a bad person.” Character witnesses described her as dependable and kind, and a church friend testified that Pollis no longer drives, no longer drinks and is under periodic alcohol testing and breathalyzer monitoring.

Prosecutors were not moved. Cross-examining her father, a prosecutor said: “One day, sir, regardless of her sentence, she will get out.” Then: “But the Wallaces will never get to see their daughter again.”

That is the whole case in two sentences. A “terrible decision” is ordering one drink too many. Getting behind the wheel at nearly four times the legal limit, then driving almost twice the speed limit through a light that had been red for five seconds, is something else. It is a choice that put every person on that road at risk, and a young woman with her whole life ahead of her paid for it.

Why the anniversary jail time matters

Too many drunk-driving cases end with sentences that leave victims’ families feeling like the system shrugged. Seven years for a life is not a long time, and Pollis will one day walk out of prison, as the prosecutor said.

But Judge Balido’s probation terms make sure the walking out is not the end of it. For a decade after her release, Pollis will go back behind bars for 15 days a year, and several of those days will land on the dates that matter most: the day Honor Wallace was killed, the birthdays of the young women she hit, and her own birthday. It is accountability built into the calendar, the thing Bobby Solberg said he never saw from her in court.

The criminal case is not the only one. Wallace’s parents have also filed a civil suit against Pollis that names Mutts Canine Cantina, where Pollis said she had been drinking, as a defendant, according to FOX 4.

Honor Wallace was 19. She wanted to be a lawyer. She was driving through a green light.

Lynlee Pollis chose to drive drunk, and now, every year on the day Honor Wallace died, she goes back to jail to remember it.

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