GONZALES — A Baton Rouge man has been sentenced to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to slamming into a stalled sport utility vehicle in Ascension Parish one night nearly four years ago and killing a then-recent high school graduate, prosecutors said.
Thomas Bowers, 44, agreed in late February to accept a guilty plea to vehicular homicide in the death of 18-year-old Richard Billingsley II of Prairieville, prosecutors with the 23rd Judicial District said in a news release.
GONZALES — A Baton Rouge man accused of killing an 18-year-old more than two years ago after crashing his pickup into a stalled SUV in Ascensi…
On Aug. 4, 2015, Billingsley, who had recently graduated form St. Amant High School with honors and was preparing to start at LSU, was pushing the rear of a stalled Mazda Tribute to get it off La. 42 west of La. 44 in the Prairieville area. Bowers hit him and the car about 11:32 p.m., prosecutors said.
The sedan's emergency flashers were working at the time of the crash, prosecutors said.
Bowers, 26232 Kendalwood Road, Baton Rouge, failed a field sobriety test. A breath test later determined his blood-alcohol level was 0.143 grams-percent, nearly twice the legal limit to drive, prosecutors said. Under state law, if a person's blood-alcohol level is 0.08 percent or higher, it is presumptive evidence of drunken driving.
An 18-year-old Prairieville man was killed Tuesday when he was helping push a friend’s disabled car off a road and he was struck by a drunken …
Judge Alvin Turner Jr. of the 23rd Judicial District Court handed down Bower's prison sentence Monday at the Parish Courthouse Annex in Gonzales. The judge ruled that three years must be served be without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, prosecutors said.
