Death Cause by Distracted Driving While on Cell Phone Leads to Conviction for Negligent Homicide
By Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair.
It was an emotional crime, to be sure. The father of the daughter convicted of the crime now no longer believes in the criminal justice system, and the convicted daughter still does not believe she committed a crime at all—even though the 25-year-old father of a child is dead because of the daughter’s behavior.
The daughter is 24-year-old Jeri Montgomery who was recently convicted in Harris County for the offense of criminally negligent homicide. Assistant District Attorney Brent Mayr prosecuted the case. The prosecutor convinced a jury that Montgomery committed the homicide against Chance Wilcox in March 2008 when she illegally changed lanes while trying to get on an interstate highway resulting in a fatal three car pileup. Mayr presented evidence, through Montgomery’s cell phone records, that the woman had just terminated a cell phone conversation when she realized she was about to miss the on-ramp to the interstate and abruptly changed lanes in front of Wilcox.
“She [Montgomery] made the decision to talk on her cell phone,” Mayr was quoted as saying in the Houston Chronicle. “That distracted her from knowing where she was, where other cars were around her, and, ultimately, she made the choice to make an extremely negligent decision and the jury found it was criminal negligent.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last month called “distracted driving” a “menace to society” which killed nearly 6,000 people last year and injured a half-million more. The two leading causes of “distracted driving” are talking on cell phones, as Montgomery was doing, and texting while driving. USA Today reported recently that some 38 states have either enacted legislation or are currently considering pending legislation that would ban these forms of distracted driving. (more…)
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