LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — A Lockport man has pleaded guilty to a vehicular manslaughter charge in connection to a crash in May 2021.
The Niagara County District Attorney's Office announced 24-year-old Thomas Townsend pleaded guilty in Niagara County Court Tuesday to one count of vehicular manslaughter in the second degree.
The district attorney's office said Townsend admitted to operating a truck while intoxicated and causing the death of his passenger, 22-year-old Brandon Roach. According to officials an investigation determined Townsend was traveling at a high rate of speed on Glenwood Avenue when his vehicle left the roadway, struck a tree and went down an embankment.
Townsend is scheduled to be sentenced May 3 and the district attorney's office said at the request of Roach's family the judge agreed to sentence him to a combination of incarceration and probation.
