A Louisiana appeals court has thrown out the 90-year prison sentence for a drunken driver who struck nine bicycle riders near a Mardi Gras parade route in March 2019, killing two of them.
The state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal said the judge who sentenced Tashonty Toney failed to sufficiently spell out the reasons for handing out the maximum sentences following Toney's guilty plea. Therefore, the ruling said, appellate judges could not adequately review Toney's argument that the total sentence was excessive.
Blood tests showed Toney was driving with a blood-alcohol level above .21 percent as he sped down New Orleans' prominent Esplanade Avenue, which was bustling with auto, bicycle and pedestrian traffic after the popular parade of the Krewe of Endymion. The two killed were Sharree Walls, 27, of New Orleans and David Hynes, 31, a Seattle man and Tulane Law School graduate who was visiting during Mardi Gras.
Toney pleaded guilty in October 2019 to 16 criminal counts, including two counts of vehicular homicide, each of which carried a maximum 30-year sentence. His plea agreement did not include a sentencing agreement.
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