Man gets 10 years probation for manslaughter in death of nurse

NEW BOSTON, Texas —A man who was driving over 125 miles an hour while under the influence of drugs on a dark, rainy morning in 2018 was sentenced to 10 years probation Thursday for manslaughter.

Adrian Severn Blood, 27, pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter. A jury chosen the same day listened to testimony and arguments Wednesday and Thursday in deciding the punishment Blood should receive.

After deliberating more than six hours Thursday, the jury returned with a verdict of 10 years with a recommendation for probation. The jury also assessed a maximum $10,000 fine.

Fifth District Judge Bill Miller is bound by statute to follow the jury’s recommendation for probation. As a condition of probation, Miller imposed a 150-day jail sanction.

Blood was on his way home from a Texarkana, Arkansas, methadone clinic Sept. 11, 2018, when he crashed his gray 2017 Chevrolet Impala into the rear of a red 2013 Impala driven by 35-yearold Amanda Gardner-Hawkins. The wreck happened about 6:30 a.m. and less than 2 miles from Gardner-Hawkins’ home in DeKalb, Texas.

Gardner-Hawkins was headed to her house after a night shift on her job as a registered nurse at the Barry Telford Unit state prison in New Boston, Texas. Her husband testified Wednesday that she liked to get home in time to wake their two sons, get them ready and drive them to school.

A former Texarkana Gazette newspaper carrier who was in his car chatting with a customer at his mailbox was about 15 feet away when the two cars collided. James Brown testified that the sound he heard was like a bomb and that after witnessing the destruction, he quit his job, fearful of what might become of him on a Bowie County highway.

Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter argued in closing remarks that “the evidence of the reckless behavior of Blood is overwhelming.” She said Blood was “barrelling” down a wet highway in the dark while under the combined influence of methadone and Xanax, a prescription anxiety medication for which Blood had no prescription.

Carter said a call regarding a reckless driver on U.S. Highway 82 was received the morning of the accident. The caller approached the accident scene and was captured speaking about the call on a body camera worn by Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Chad Turner.

Carter argued data from Blood’s air bag deployment system showed he was “going as fast as he could.” Carter snapped her fingers and told the jury, “That’s a second ladies and gentleman,” before noting that the impact caused GardnerHawkins’ car to go from about 52 to 92 miles per hour in under a second.

Carter emphasized testimony from the medical examiner, who said Wednesday that GardnerHawkins would likely have been paralyzed and lived with brain damage had she survived the crash. GardnerHawkins suffered blunt force injuries to her brain and internal organs as well as fractured ribs and vertabrae.

Carter reminded the jury of the testimony Wednesday of Shaynne Hawkins, GardnerHawkins’ husband of 14 years and father of their two sons. Hawkins testified that he doesn’t believe 20 years,

the maximum punishment for manslaughter in Texas, is enough, because he and his boys must live the rest of their lives without their mother.

Hawkins said treasured family trips to a fishing cabin in Oklahoma don’t happen for him and his boys now because it “hurts to go there.”

Sulphur Springs, Texas, lawyer Heath Hyde told the jury that Blood is a “good kid who got addicted to the devil’s poison.”

Hyde argued that Blood was trying to get help for his substance abuse problem when he caused the wreck. In Blood’s defense, Hyde argued that in the years since his arrest and release on bond, Blood has submitted clean drug tests and complied with court orders.

“He’s young enough for a second chance,” Hyde argued.