South Point man pleads guilty in traffic fatality
Published 12:00 am Monday, October 29, 2007
A South Point man who was indicted last month in connection with a fatal car crash will spend the next five years behind bars.
Matthew Cecil, 40, of 132 Township Road 1504, pleaded guilty last week to one count of aggravated vehicular homicide and drunken driving.
Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Charles Cooper sentenced Cecil to a total of five years in prison and ordered him to surrender his driver’s license for three years.
Authorities said Cecil was traveling east on State Route 141 June 29 when he drove left of center, striking another vehicle driven by Kayla L. Hankins, 19, of Ironton, who was driving west.
The Hankins car went off the left side of the road and landed on its side in a ditch. Hankins was pronounced dead at the scene.
An infant passenger in her car was taken to Cabell Huntington Hospital, but was not seriously injured. Cecil was also injured in the crash and was taken to the same hospital. Authorities said at the time of the accident, Cecil’s blood alcohol level was nearly three time the legal limit.