Heath Hyde’s Win Is Featured on Texarkana Gazette

Texarkana Gazette Apr 22, 2022 covers Heath Hyde’s win.

Attorney Heath Hyde is responsible for defending his client – Adrian Severn Blood – in a vehicular manslaughter case. While the max­imum pun­ish­ment for man­slaughter in Texas is 20 years, his client got 10 years probation.

Heath argued to the court that his client was trying to get help for his sub­stance abuse. He also showed to the court that his client had clean drug tests and complied with court orders since his client’s release on bond.

Explore Heath Hyde’s Results with 90% Winrate

Read the full article of this remarkable win at Texarkana Gazette – Apr 22, 2022, and check for more of our success at Heath Hyde Results.

See the a portion of the full article by Lynn LaRowe below.

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 airbag 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.