A suspected drunk driver accused of killing two Tennessee parents on Christmas Day may have to pay child support for their now-orphaned children under a new state law. As of January 1, Tennessee became the first US state to charge DUI drivers who cause a death with child support for the surviving children of their victims.
On Christmas Day, Patricke Conley, 42, was arrested after he lost control of his vehicle into a mailbox and swerved into the lane where Dustin and Brittany Dillard, both 33, were driving with their three small children.
Conley was charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and three counts of vehicular assault. According to an arrest report from the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office, alcohol was a factor in the accidentand first responders noted “a strong odor of alcoholic beverage” in Conley’s car and “numerous cans of Bud Light beer” scattered throughout his vehicle.
The couple were pronounced dead at the scene, leaving their three children seriously injured and orphaned.
TENNESSEE MAN WITH BUD LIGHT CANS CHARGED IN DEADLY CHRISTMAS DAY CRASH THAT LEFT 3 INJURED CHILDREN, ORPHANS
Online records show the suspect, Patricke Conley, 42, was booked into the Bradley County Jail Wednesday afternoon.
(Bradley County Jail)
On January 1, Tennessee’s new Ethan, Hailey and Bentley Act was modeled on legislation introduced in Missouri and went into effect. Under the law, a person convicted of vehicular manslaughter or aggravated vehicular manslaughter by intoxication will have to pay child support if the victim is the parent of a minor.
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The guilty person would have to pay until the child is 18 years old or graduates from high school.
While Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law last spring, it didn’t begin to take effect until the start of the new year.
The bill was proposed by Cecilia Williams, whose son Cordell, 30, his fiancee Lacey Newton, 25, and their four-month-old son, Cordell II, were killed by a drunk driver. The accident left Cecilia’s two grandchildren orphans.
The Tennessee legislature passed a bill in April 2022 that requires drunk drivers to pay child support if they kill a parent and are convicted of vehicular manslaughter due to intoxication.
(iStock)
Lawmakers named the bill the Ethan, Hailey, and Bentley Act after Cecilia’s grandson Bentley, as well as the two sons of Nicholas Galinger, a Tennessee police officer who was killed by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run and drain.
The drunk driver’s blood alcohol level was allegedly double the legal limit when he struck Williams’ car, which skidded off the road and into a tree before catching fire.
Although the law will not benefit her or her grandchildren personally, she said she campaigned for its introduction to “help other people.”
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Tennessee is the first and only state to pass this law. Similar bills are being considered in several states, including Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.
