A 21-year-old Bridge City man earlier this month pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in connection with a collision that killed a man last year.
Tyler Wayne Hodgkinson will be on five years of probation, pay a $1,000 fine and do 100 hours of community service. The community service will include talking to youth about the dangers of drinking and driving.
Hodgkinson was arrested March 8, 2015, for intoxication manslaughter after his pickup truck hit a small car at 4:45 in the morning at the intersection of Highway 87 and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
The driver of the Chevrolet Aveo, 43-year-old Bret Allen Gentzler, was killed.
Orange County District Attorney John Kimbrough recused his office from the prosecution because Hodgkinson’s father was chief deputy at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office at the time. A special prosecutor from Jefferson County was assigned.
Tyler Hodgkinson waived a grand jury indictment and made the plea before 128th State District Judge Courtney Arkeen.
Criminally negligent homicide is a state jail felony with a punishment of 180 days to 2 years in a state jail plus a maximum fine of $10,000.
Intoxication manslaughter is a second degree felony with a punishment of 2 to 20 years in state prison plus a maximum fine of $10,000.
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