Driver in crash that killed firefighter Spencer Chauvin, 2 others sentenced to 15 years
Published 1:34 pm Monday, April 9, 2018
- Denis Amir Amaya-Rodriguez
EDGARD — The driver of a bus the killed three people, including a veteran St. John the Baptist Parish firefighter, was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Spencer Chauvin
The sentence was announced by 40th Judicial District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy shortly after noon Monday (April 9) at the Edgard courthouse.
Denis Amaya-Rodriguez, 38, was sentenced to the maximum five years in prison for each count of a three-count negligent homicide conviction that was handed down earlier this year.
Rodriguez must serve the sentences consecutively and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
He was also ordered back to court May 14 for the resolution of misdemeanor cases in relation to the fatal crash.
The wreck occurred Aug. 28, 2016, on Interstate 10 near LaPlace. St. John Parish Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin, 36, was on the scene working as a first responder when he was struck and killed during a series of collisions resulting from Rodriguez’s reckless driving.
The crash also claimed the lives of Jermaine Starr, 21, and Vontarous Kelly, 33, each of Moss Point, Miss., and injured more than 30 others.
