After a Denton man pleaded guilty to striking and killing a pedestrian with his vehicle, then attempting to have the vehicle destroyed, he was sentenced this month to six years in prison.
Tony Lavett Gray Jr., 29, struck a pedestrian with his car as the man walked crossed the 400 block of East University Drive near Bell Avenue on Thanksgiving night. The victim, identified as 62-year-old David Lee Phillips, died of blunt force injuries.
Tony Lavett Gray Jr.
Gray pleaded guilty to not rendering aid after he struck Phillips, a second-degree felony with a punishment range of two to 20 years in prison.
Gray also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years, after police caught him attempting to have his vehicle crushed on Nov. 30. He received a three-year sentence for this charge, which will run concurrently with his other conviction.
At the time of the hit-and-run, Gray was on probation. He had pleaded no contest to Class B misdemeanor criminal mischief and guilty to state jail felony drug possession in 2021. He received community service. For violating his parole, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail to run concurrently with the other sentences.
Having never bailed out since he was booked into the Denton County Jail on Dec. 2, Gray received 183 days of jail credit toward his sentence. As of Tuesday, Gray had not yet been transferred from the county jail to a state prison.
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BROOKE COLOMBO can be reached at 940-566-6882 and via Twitter at @brookecolombo.
