Posted on 05/19/2005 5:47:37 PM PDT by Dog Gone
DALLAS — A man who admitted to driving drunk when he hit and killed a 10-year-old boy was sentenced to spend Christmas Day, New Year's Day and the child's birthday in jail for the next 10 years.
Rocky Anderson, 24, pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in the death of 10-year-old Braden Hopkins. Braden was visiting family for the summer when he was hit by a car and killed July 17, 2003 in suburban Irving.
A jury sentenced Anderson on Wednesday to 10 years probation and a $10,000 fine in the boy's death. As a condition of Anderson's probation, Judge Vickers Cunningham sentenced him to spend 180 days in jail over the next 10 years.
Anderson will be required to serve nine days in jail every June — including June 8, Braden's birthday — and nine days every December and January, including Christmas and New Year's.
>>that judge put some coal in Rocky's Christmas stocking...that judge put some coal in Rocky's Christmas stocking...
he was let off too easy.
Wonder who Rocky is or who he knows?
It seems like these Drunk Drioing homicides inspire Judges into stuff like this. There've been sentences where the person has to send the victim's family a dollar every week along with a note apologizing for years on end.
WOW! How sad he got off so light.
Additionally, he has to wear an alcohol monitoring device (not sure what that is), and of course write the mandatory letter to the family.
The judge threw in the prison time on top of the jury's sentence.
This is a very odd sentencing commitment. At the minimum, he should be doing 10 yrs without PoP. Then do the judge's commitment for the rest of his lifetime.
There's no way he would have gotten a suspended sentence otherwise. Not here.
Three hots an a cott.
Given the climate, I tend to agree with your assessment.
This is not a place that's soft on crime, so I think it's a sure bet that there are some significant facts about this case that we don't know.
The 180 days in jail as a condition of community supervision was the maximum the judge could assess after the jury sentenced the defendant to community supervision.
It does not surprise me. While Texas juries are tough on intentional crimes, they are not as tough on alcohol-related offenses.
What is the relationship between Christmas, a religious holoiday, and the court picking this particular date? What happened to separation? Looks like an appeal to me.
I'm not sure any jurisdiction is. It's a lower level of malice to accidentally kill someone than to intentionally do so, regardless of the stupidity of the behavior that led to it.
A person who commits intoxication manslaughter in Texas can get between 2 and 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. For some reason, the jury here imposed the maximum fine, and a 10 year sentence, but then suspended it.
I couldn't find any further details, either. I based my post on the meager facts as presented in the article.
Where did you get the 180 days? Perhaps you have more information on this crime & sentencing, than is in the thread article. If so, please post it...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.