Woman sentenced to probation in teen’s drinking death
Published 10:18 pm Thursday, April 5, 2018
MOULTRIE, Ga. — A Moultrie woman will serve 60 months on probation but no jail time in the death of a 17-year-old Norman Park teen who died during a night of heavy drinking.
Colquitt County Superior Court Judge Richard M. Cowart sentenced Tisha B. Daniels to 12 months on each of the five counts in indictment. Daniels pleaded guilty on Feb. 8 to involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 death of Fuventino Velazquez Jr. and four counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor.
Velazquez died on the night of Oct. 4, 2014, after he lost consciousness during a party at a residence in the 700 block of Highway 133 South. Velazquez was placed in a bedroom of the residence and later the bed of a truck, according to court documents. At some point someone poured a large amount of water over his face and eventually some friends became concerned and took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In addition to the probation time, Cowart sentenced Daniels to pay a total of $2,000 in fines, attend a victim impact panel meeting sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and perform 100 hours of community service work.
The sentences, imposed on Monday after a pre-sentencing investigation ordered by the judge, are to be served consecutively.
Daniels admitted providing two bottles of liquor to four boys who came to her residence on the night of Velazquez’s death. The boys invited her son to the party but he declined to go.
Velazquez and his friends apparently were drunk when they arrived at the party, where there was additional wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages, according to a pre-sentence memorandum prepared by Daniels’ attorney, Jon Forehand, in which Daniels asked for sentencing as a first offender.
During the time Velazquez was unconscious in the bed of the truck police stopped to investigate a complaint at the residence, the document said, but no one alerted them to the teen’s condition.
The woman who lived at the residence, where reportedly teen-agers including her son and daughter were allowed to drink alcohol, fled to Mexico to avoid responsibility, according to the memorandum.
The Colquitt County District Attorney’s Office did not object to allowing Daniels to be sentenced under the conditions of a first offender.