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No prison for driver who injured medic, killed pedestrian

After pleading guilty to two DUI charges and being sentenced to 25 years in prison, the man had his sentence suspended for medical reasons

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Robert Lee Howard Jr.

Police photo

By Ross Adams
WAPT News

JACKSON, Miss. — A man pleaded guilty earlier this month to a 2013 crash that killed a pedestrian and seriously injured a paramedic, but he won’t be going to prison.

Robert Lee Howard Jr., who was 44 at the time of the wreck, pleaded guilty Oct. 9 in Hinds County Circuit Court to two drunken driving charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended because of medical reasons.

American Medical Response paramedic Jennifer Hesselbein and her partner stopped their ambulance on Bullard Street on July 31, 2013, to help Jessie Lee Thomas, 71, who had been hit by a car and was lying in the middle of the street, according to authorities.

Read full story: No prison time for crash that killed pedestrian, injured paramedic