Man gets life in prison for 2017 killing of 2 cyclists in Waller County

BROOKSHIRE, Texas (KTRK) -- An Army vet was sentenced to life in prison for running over a group of cyclists in 2017, killing two of them, according to officials.

Victor Kevin Tome was sentenced on Monday, June 21. Tome was charged with capital murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, accident involving serious bodily injury and two counts of accident involving death.

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The charges stemmed from the March 25, 2017 incident, in which he drove his vehicle into a group of cyclists. Witnesses testified that Tome was driving towards several cyclists in a bike race in Waller County on Buller Road. Tome hit five innocent victims while purposely maneuvering his car towards them, according to a release.

The two cyclists killed were identified as 48-year-old Keri Blanchard Guillory and 37-year-old Craig Randall Tippit.

After hitting the cyclists, Tome fled the scene and hid behind a house until his arrest.

That homeowner found Tome inside his living room and recognized Tome to be mentally unstable.

"He had hurt them because he thought they were going to hurt him," Mark Newkirk, the homeowner, said in a 2017 interview. "That's what he was telling me. He was rambling on and on."

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Tome pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. During his trial, military psychiatrist Michael Arambula testified for the prosecution against three defense experts on the issue of insanity. Arambula found that Tome suffered from psychosis due to extensive abuse of ecstasy, marijuana and alcohol.

On the charge of capital murder, Tome was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The video above is from a 2017 report in which Tome was called a "challenging inmate" by a judge.