WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 11 (UPI) -- North Carolina officials said they would release Thomas Jones from prison Wednesday after he served 15 years for killing two people while driving drunk.
Jones, now 54, was the first person to be convicted for murder in an impaired-driving case under a North Carolina law signed into effect in 1997 allowing drivers to be charged with murder.
A Corrections Department official said Jones would be banned from driving and from patronizing bars as a condition of his release. He will also be prohibited from possessing drugs and alcohol and will be subject to counseling and random testing.
Jones, a chronic drunken driver, was behind the wheel of a car that slammed into another vehicle at an intersection in Winston-Salem. The crash left two members of a Wake Forest University sorority dead and injured four other occupants.
Jones was found to have been drinking beer and downing prescription drugs prior to the crash.
The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal said Jones' conviction was overturned in 2000 by the North Carolina Supreme Court, which ruled a charge of first-degree murder had been unwarranted. A new trial took place in 2003 where Jones pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
