Editors note: This story was edited to correct the name of the accused from Claude Gay to Clyde Gay.
NATCHITOCHES, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Sentencing for a truck driver accused of a crash that fatally wounded members of the Southern University marching band happened after two emotional hours of victim impact statements in Natchitoches Parish.
According to the Louisiana State Police the driver, Clyde Gay of Coushatta, drifted onto the interstate’s northbound shoulder while traveling in his Freightliner and crashed into the vehicle which was parked in the emergency lane, according to LSP.
The accused had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide
Gay was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison, four years of that is suspended. He is credited with 10 months time served. Gay was also ordered to surrender his commercial driver’s license and is banned from ever getting his CDL reinstated. Each family is also to be paid $5,000 in restitution. He will also have to pay additional fines and court costs.
Three members of the ‘Human Jukebox’ were traveling back to Texas together on December 7, 2022. The students stopped on I-49 to change a flat tire when Gay drifted into the shoulder, striking, and fatally injuring Tyran Williams, 19; Dylan Young, 21; and Broderick Moore, 19, all of Texas.
