"" A divided three-judge state appeals court
panel ordered Monday that a
Donaldsonville man serve his original two-
year prison sentence from a July 1995
negligent homicide conviction in Ascension
Parish, overturning a district court ruling
last year that had suspended the sentence.
Stanley White, 39, 503 Vatican Drive,
pleaded guilty in July 1995 to the reduced
charge following an alcohol-related crash
on Airline Highway near Gonzales that
killed a 10-week-old St. Amant girl in
mid-1994.
But even after an appeals court affirmed the
negligent homicide conviction in February
1997, White never was called to serve his
time in prison.
And since, White, who was 19 at the time of
the accident, has earned a college degree,
has held a job, and has never again been in
trouble with the law.
The case resurfaced last year , but in May
2013, Judge Jessie LeBlanc of the 23rd
Judicial District suspended White’s two-year
sentence and gave him two years of
probation. The 23rd JDC encompasses
Ascension, Assumption and St. James
parishes.
Writing for the 2-1 majority Monday, Judge
James E. Kuhn of the Louisiana 1st Circuit
Court of Appeal said LeBlanc lacked the
authority to modify White’s sentence.
Kuhn noted the original sentence had been
affirmed by the appeals court — a ruling
that was not appealed to the state Supreme
Court — and execution of sentence had
begun years before LeBlanc ruled.
“We conclude that the district court lacked
jurisdiction and authority and was without
a procedural mechanism to modify the
original, legal sentence,” Kuhn wrote.
In dissent, Appeals Judge Toni M.
Higginbotham found that LeBlanc fashioned
an appropriate sentence, given the unusual
circumstance and the lapse of time.
Higginbotham noted that since the crash
White has earned a bachelor’s degree and
real estate license, has a full-time job and
has not been arrested again. White also
never received notice to report to the
Sheriff’s Office after his trial and appeal.
“The record reveals that Mr. White has been
a model citizen for twenty years, has
established himself in the community, and
has avoided further problems with the
authorities, thereby demonstrating his
capacity to rehabilitate himself in a non-
custodial setting,” Higginbotham wrote. “In
this case, due process and fundamental
fairness support the judgement of the
district court.”
Appeals Judge Mitchell R. Theriot concurred
with Kuhn that LeBlanc lacked the
authority to change White’s sentence but
wanted the case sent back to LeBlanc for
more argument.
At the time LeBlanc suspended White’s
sentence on May 3, 2013, she ruled that too
much time had passed for White to serve
his original two-year prison sentence
without violating “fundamental principles
of liberty and justice.”
The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office,
which had taken over the case from District
Attorney Ricky Babin, had argued that
White owed the killed infant, Brittany
Deville, and her surviving family 24 months
in prison.
“He owes it to this dead girl, and he owes it
to her family,” Assistant Attorney General
David Weilbaecher Jr. told LeBlanc at the
May 3, 2013, hearing.
“That’s why we’re here, to make certain he
pays the price for what he did wrong. He
never had to pay the price.”
White had crashed into a vehicle carrying
Brittany and her family on July 31, 1994.
Brittany, who was unrestrained, was
thrown from the vehicle and later died.
White had a blood-alcohol content of 0.09
percent, which at the time was lower than
the state’s threshold for presumptive
drunken driving.""
Link.

I say no......if you wanna put him on some type of probation, fine...but jailing him serves no purpose.

He killed a baby with alcohol in his system; I say he needs to serve the time. What would really have make him a "model citizen" is if he had turned himself in without receiving a notice. I understand the due process of it all and he slipped through the cracks at the fault of the court, but he got to go on with his life as usual while that family lost their child. I don't care if he had a doctorate and ran an orphanage, he has a debt to pay.

The alcohol shldnt even have been an issue as it was .09 and wasnt even the law at the time.....and the baby was unrestrained. Thats neither here nor there though. I just dont see how ruining his life by sending him away for two years does anything. It does raise the question of whether incarceration should be rehabilitative or punitive....or maybe a little of both. And Id like to know whether he was told to report, or. was told he would be sent a notice of when to report, at his original sentencing.


Let me add....Ive lost a child to a traffic accident....and no amount of imprisonment of the person at fault wldve eased my pain.

@WalkSoftly: I understand, but to me notice or no notice, restrained or unrestrained he was sentenced for being negligent...2 years surely won't ruin his life. When I'm negligent to pay a bill, the bill doesn't go away. Well, I guess it does years and years later...I see your point now. However, I still have the same opinion even with the technicalities of it all.

And I know that you understand that the jail time wouldn't equate to the loss of a life, but probation to me would be even more pointless...

Meh....loss of a job, maybe losing his home, loss of any taxes hes paying in, possible loss of familly...not to mention probably $50,000 or so taxpayer dollars that will now be used to house him.

I get the technicality aspect of it, I just dont see where it serves a purpose......

If I get a bill today from 19 years ago, that bitch is goin in the trash


Btw, the state shld get its sh!t together.....its kinda strange that he wasnt incarcerated immediately after being convicted.

@WalkSoftly: I took back the part about the bill! Haha

And yes the state definitely needs to get it together...

But as for the rest, we agree to disagree...AS USUAL ;)

I think probation is fair for this. It has been way to long to try and make him do prison time. He straightened up and turned his life around. It is the states fault for not imprisoning him right then. Yes it sucks for the family, but if it was me and my baby was killed in that accident I would have made sure he was taken in that day and not have waited.

Thats something I didnt think of....I think I, as the parent, wouldve been on top of that also.

That was the first thing I thought about, Why did the parents not throw a fit? I know I would have

Would you really have made sure though? Because I would have asssumed that the court had made him serve his time. Mourning the loss of my kid, feeling guilt for not restraining her, trying to create a life for the part of the family that did survive the crash that's what would be on my mind...the last thing I would think I'd need to be concerned about is if the judicial system actually made a guilty man serve his time.


He turned his life around, so what? It's the court's mess up, but he had a personal responsibility. Probation is not a punishment...especially for a model citizen.