Man sentenced to 12 years in prison for boat crash that killed 19-year-old woman
Published 6:35 am Tuesday, October 22, 2019
A Mississippi man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fatally crashing his boat into a 19-year-old woman who was setting crab traps on a bayou.
Judge Larry Bourgeois delivered 47-year-old Eugene Butler Jr.’s sentence on Monday for manslaughter in the 2016 boat crash that killed Vanessa Mauffray.
Hancock County officials said Mauffray was crabbing with her boyfriend on Bayou Caddy when Butler sped around a curve and broadsided their 15-foot vessel.
Witness testimony revealed Butler hadn’t been looking forward moments before the crash.
The Biloxi Sun Herald previously reported that Mauffray’s boyfriend pulled her to shore as their boat sank.
She later died from her injuries at a hospital.
Bayou Caddy is about 25 miles from Gulfport, Mississippi.