A 27-year-old man will serve a sentence of more than five years for being high when he caused a head-on crash on an Iron Range highway that killed the other driver.
5⅔-year sentence for impaired Iron Range driver who killed other motorist
He will serve a little less than two-thirds of that time in prison.
August 20, 2021 at 4:45PM
Thomas M. Gilley, of Marble, Minn., was sentenced Thursday in St. Louis County District Court in connection with the collision Nov. 12 on Hwy. 5 north of Hibbing that killed Franklin D. Rice, 39, of Hibbing.
Gilley, who pleaded guilty in June to criminal vehicular homicide, will serve roughly the first two-thirds of his 5⅔-year term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Gilley has been convicted seven times in Minnesota for driving after his license was revoked and three times for drug offenses, according to court records.
At the time of the crash, Gilley did have a valid driver's license, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
In 2014, he was civilly committed by an Isanti County judge as chemically dependent. He was discharged after six months of treatment, court records show.
After Gilley's SUV collided with Rice's car, police located on the SUV's dashboard crumpled tin foil and a broken syringe, according to the charges. A spoon containing an off-white residue was on the passenger side of the vehicle. In his pocket was another syringe, a pipe, clear baggies and a cylinder holding marijuana.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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