Driver Sentenced To Prison In Fatal Head-On Crash

CARTERSVILLE, GA — A Cartersville man has been sentenced to prison for his actions that led to the fatal crash that killed a 21-year-old Bartow County resident. Willie Joe Heath was sentenced this week in Bartow County Superior Court to a total of 15 years in connection with the Thanksgiving 2015 collision.

Heath pleaded guilty to one count each of vehicular homicide in the first degree, driving under the influence, driving on the wrong side of the roadway and failure to maintain lane. As part of the plea deal, Heath will only have to serve seven years in prison, as well as pay a $2,500 fine, perform 500 hours of community service and pay $12,000 in restitution, the Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office said.

He is also ordered to not have any contact with the family of Jessie Tyler Law, take a DUI Risk/Reduction course and undergo substance abuse evaluation and treatment (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here).

Troopers with the Georgia State Patrol were dispatched around 10:30 p.m. Nov. 26, 2015, to the two-vehicle accident on S.R. 293 just outside Kingston's city limits. While negotiating a curve, the driver of a 2006 Chrysler 300 traveling southbound on the highway "crossed over the double yellow line" and hit a 1996 Dodge Ram traveling northbound head-on, the Georgia State Patrol previously told Patch.

The driver of the Chrysler, Heath, was injured and transported to Floyd Medical Center for treatment.
The driver of the Dodge, Cartersville resident Jessie Tyler Law, 21, was killed in the crash while his 21-year-old female passenger as injured and treated at Floyd Medical Center.

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