David Njuguna, 33, who was jailed in the US for killing a policeman during a road crash. /BOSTON HERALD.
WORCESTER, MA, Nov 22 – A Kenyan man has been sentenced to a five to seven-year prison term in Massachusetts US for killing a policeman – Thomas Clardy – during a road crash in March 2016.
According to the BostonHerald.com, David Njuguna, 33, was sentenced after a series of statements from the policeman’s wife, children, sister and mother.
Njuguna will serve consecutive prison sentences after Judge Janet Kenton-Walker found him guilty on counts of involuntary manslaughter, misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide, operating to endanger and driving an uninsured motor vehicle.
He was however, given credit for 1,283 days served while awaiting trial.
Prosecutors had sought 10 to 12 years, citing the “high degree of recklessness” of Njuguna’s actions.
“It just breaks my heart,” Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes, the head of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police Association, was quoted as saying.
“When the prosecution was looking for 10 years — which in my opinion was more than reasonable — to cut that sentence in half essentially I think it just doesn’t go far enough.”
Clardy’s wife, Reisa, described her husband’s death as “truly overwhelming” in a statement ahead of the sentencing.
“Because of a selfish and senseless act his life was cut short,” Reisa Clardy said in an impact statement, according to BostonHerald.com.
“Our stability, our normalcy, our peace of mind, our strength is no longer here.”
Njuguna was said to be a medical marijuana patient, the prosecution saying he was high when the car he was driving slammed into Clardy’s stationary patrol car.
His lawyers however told the court their client had a seizure which led to the tragic accident that claimed Clardy, 44, a father of seven.
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