Man Charged in Wife's Seat Belt Death

[El Barto]

Should this guy rot in jail, or should the 50 year old woman be considered responsible for herself?




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Man Charged in Wife's Seat Belt Death

She died at the scene of the crash, but her husband walked away. State police say the difference is he was wearing a seat belt.

Troopers tell 9 News shortly after 12:30 p.m., the couple was headed west on I-10 near the Prairieville exit, when their truck's rear tire blew out. The vehicle began to spin out of control, eventually flipping in a group of trees.

Troopers say the force of the crash threw the passenger, 50-year-old Lesa Stanton of Gretna, 30 feet out of the truck behind some bushes. The coroner pronounced her dead at the scene. Troopers say the driver, her husband, walked away and even refused to go to the hospital.

State Trooper Johnnie Brown says, "It's a very simple portrait of what happens when you don't wear your seat belt. The possibility of being ejected, the death that can result from that. Conversely, you have the husband that was wearing his seat belt and survived the crash with relatively minimal injury."

Trooper Brown says the driver, 49-year-old James Stanton is being charged with careless operation and negligent homicide because troopers say he was responsible for making his wife wear her seat belt.