Tennessee woman pleads guilty to leaving disabled man to die

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – A Tennessee woman has pleaded guilty to leaving a disabled man in a transport van where he died from hyperthermia and dehydration.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports 60-year-old Cliftina Jones pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide Wednesday in the death of 60-year-old Carrie Lee Parkey Jr. He was “cognitively impaired and disabled .” She was sentenced to 18 months of unsupervised probation.

District Special Prosecutor Steve Strain says Jones picked up Parkey from a group home in April 2017, but never dropped him off. He was found dead hours later. Strain says prosecutors didn’t have evidence Jones intentionally abandoned Parkey.

Jones’ sentence is part of a program designed to keep first-time offenders out of prison. Her lawyer, Curtis Bowe III, could not be reached for comment by the newspaper.

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Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com