Driver in crash sentenced

UVALDE, Texas — A driver was sentenced to 55 years in prison Friday for causing a church bus crash in South Texas that killed 13 people .

Jack Dillon Young , 21, of Leakey, was sentenced after a three-day hearing. He had faced up to 270 years in prison for the March 2017 collision.

Young was driving his pickup after smoking marijuana and taking the prescription drug clonazepam, a sedative used to treat panic disorders and seizures, when he collided with the church bus on U.S. 83 near Uvalde, about 75 miles west of San Antonio, according to testimony. He pleaded no contest in May to 13 counts of intoxication manslaughter and one count of intoxication assault.

Defense attorney Rogelio Munoz asked for mercy and said doctors didn’t properly monitor Young’s prescription drug use.

The occupants of the bus into which Young’s pickup truck slammed headon were members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels returning from a senior retreat.