Middle Georgia man pleads guilty to DUI, vehicular homicide in 2021 death of Macon teen
A Middle Georgia man pleaded guilty Monday to homicide by vehicle after he crashed into a parked truck and killed a Macon teen in 2021.
Jason Ellis Partin, 50, of Gray was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Macon-Bibb Superior Court Monday afternoon after pleading guilty to homicide by vehicle in the first degree and DUI in the crash that killed Tyler Hart, 18, in 2021.
It was about 12:30 a.m. April 4, 2021 when Partin tried to drive home in his Chevy Silverado down the 4000 block of Knight Road near Interstate 475. According to court testimony, Partin’s blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit. Attorneys said Monday that Partin had been driving 63 mph in a 25 mph zone.
As Partin drove north on the street he hit a curve and veered into the opposite lane, moving toward Hart’s parked truck. Hart saw the truck coming, attorneys said, and tried to get out of the truck before the collision.
Hart was dragged down the road by Partin’s truck and died in the wreck. Investigators said he would have died in the crash even if he had stayed in his truck.
Investigators found that Partin only hit the brakes one second prior to the collision, attorneys said. They also said Partin did not help Hart’s friends search for him after the crash.
Hart, a student at Central High School, was a month away from graduating, according to family testimony. He had just gotten off work at the time of the wreck, attorneys said.
“I miss him dearly. He had big dreams…because of this it’s all over with,” said Hart’s mother, Tina Davis, in testimony. “I have a lot of pain on the inside that will never go away.”
Partin apologized to the family and said he had kept a picture of Hart ever since Davis sent it to him after the wreck.
“I want you to take that picture with you to the penitentiary,” said Judge Howard Simms. “Hang it up in that room, look at it every day. It needs to be the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning.”
Simms sentenced Partin to 15 years total, with three years of probation in addition to 12 years in prison.
