Garner enters plea deal for reckless homicide
Nov. 5—Robert K. Garner, the Daviess County man who was 18 when involved in a DUI crash that killed a passenger in his vehicle, pleaded guilty to lesser charges Friday in Daviess Circuit Court.
Garner, 23, was tried last month on charges of murder and driving under the influence in the Sept. 3, 2017, death of Cody Glover, 22.
Daviess County Sheriff's Department reports say Garner was driving when his vehicle left the road at a high rate of speed and overturned into a lake. Glover was submerged in the water for a time, and later died at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital.
The jury found Garner guilty of DUI at trial, but found him not guilty of murder and of a lesser charge of manslaughter. The jury could not reach a decision on a further lesser charge of reckless homicide.
Garner pleaded guilty to reckless homicide Friday before Circuit Judge Tyler Gill.
The plea agreement imposes a three-year prison sentence on Garner, but diverts the sentence. Gill said, if Garner has no violations or commits a new offense during the diversion period, the reckless homicide will be dismissed and will not appear on Garner's record.
Prosecutors could have filed a motion for a new trial on the reckless homicide charge.
But assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Van Meter said reckless homicide is a class D felony with a maximum sentence of five years, and that Garner already has five years of credit against his sentence because of the time he has spent on home incarceration or yard restriction.
State lawmakers changed the law regarding jail credit earlier this year, so a person gets jail credit for home incarceration whether or not they were required to wear an GPS monitor during that time. The law, which went into effect in July, says a person shall not be required to wear a monitor in order to get credit against a sentence.
Garner was not required to wear a monitor.
Van Meter said, if Garner had been retried on the reckless homicide charge, he would not have served any additional time.
"If he was convicted of reckless homicide and received the maximum penalty, he would have served out of the sentence already," Van Meter said after Friday's hearing.
Glover's mother, Vickie Jones, said during her victim impact statement "I feel half my heart died" when her son was killed.
"I wanted to ask you why you got behind the wheel that night," Jones said to Garner, and that she felt the defense worked to assassinate Glover's character during the trial.
"I'm not saying Cody was perfect, but he was perfect to us, and he didn't deserve to die the way he did that night," Jones said.
"Cody mattered to us," Jones said.
Later, she said to Glover, "I always thought I would have tomorrow to watch Cody get married, have children, but none of that will every happen."
Garner said little during the hearing, beyond answering Gill's questions.
Garner's diversion period will not be supervised. If Garner violates his diversion, he will not serve prison time, but the felony conviction will go on his record.
"You have an opportunity here, if you have no violations in the next three years, not to be a convicted felon," Gill said.
