Former firefighter sentenced to 20 years for fatal DWI accident
LIBERTY COUNTY, TX (KTRK) -- A retired Beaumont firefighter was led away in handcuffs Thursday to begin a 20-year sentence for the Aug. 2, 2015, drunk-driving accident that claimed the life of 32-year-old Candice Wise of Porter and seriously injured her fiance.
Earlier in the week, James Barry Jones, 48, of Vidor, pleaded guilty to two counts of Aggravated Assault With a Deadly Weapon, second-degree felonies that carried a maximum, concurrent sentence of 20 years.
On Aug. 2, Wise was a passenger in her fiance William Michael Kelley's work van as they traveled through the red blinking light intersection at SH 146 and SH 105 in Moss Hill. The van was struck in the passenger side by a Toyota Tundra driven by Jones. The impact pushed Kelley's vehicle 300 feet from the intersection until it came to a stop near the Verizon phone box directly across from Fitzpak store in Moss Hill. Wise died at the scene.
