Shreveport, LA From The Times (By: Tom Pace, Talk of the Town) BREAKING: DWI KILLER GETS LIFE IN PRISON 11am 1-5-10 While 15 year-old Adam Klingensmith will never celebrate another birthday, the Shreveport man, who back in 2007, drunkenly killed the young teen with his car, Jimmy Ray White will never leave Louisiana’s Angola Prison for the rest of his life.
You could call it “justice at last,” as White received the mandatory sentence of life in prison, after Caddo District Court Judge Ramona Emanuel’s finding Monday that the man is a fourth-felon multiple offender.
The 54 year-old White expressed no emotion as his sentence was handed down, wrote Kelsey McKinney of The Times.
“He was never remorseful,” Amy Dillard, mother of Adam Klingensmith Slainte, said the following the sentencing. “I just believe he’s one of those people who does not have a soul.”
Outside the second-floor courtroom, Dillard appeared exhausted as she hugged and Thanked close friend and a victim who Liaisons Accompanied her to court throughout the hearings concerning her son’s death.
Before the sentence was handed down, White was given a chance to briefly address the court. Not even the court reporter heard or understood White’s low, mumbled comment.
White’s public defender Kamm Whatley, who was standing next to her client at the time, later paraphrased him saying, “Basically, he said he did not do it, but he’s sorry about the kid.”
Emanuel then said, “The court sentences you to imprisonment at hard labor for the remainder of your natural life without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. A lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of this crime.”
White was convicted of manslaughter Aug. 28 in the slaying of Klingensmith, of Shreveport, and was then pursued as a habitual offender during a multi-bill hearing Dec. 16th
“After the habitual offender hearing, I was pretty confident this was going to be the result,” Caddo Assistant District Attorney Bill Edwards said of White’s sentence.
White was previously convicted of three felonies: burglarly, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and possession of cocaine. The former two, plus his manslaughter conviction, resulted in the mandatory life sentence.
