A Massachusetts teen was convicted on Wednesday of homicide as a result of texting while driving. In a landmark case for the state, 18-year-old Aaron Deveau was found guilty on charges of vehicular homicide, texting while driving, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle in a 2011 crash that resulted in the death of 55-year-old Donald Bowley of Danville, New Hampshire, and seriously injuring the passenger in Bowley’s vehicle.
On February 20, 2011, prosecutors said Deveau’s car crossed the center line on a street in Haverhill, which is northeast Massachusetts near New Hampshire, and hit the car Bowley was driving. Bowley’s 59-year-old lady-friend was in the car with him and has suffered serious injuries. According to Detective Thomas Howell, the impact left the couple “almost folded into the floorboards. Bowley died on March 10, 2011, after he was taken off life support. After his mother told the Haverhill district court that her son would not intentionally hurt anyone, the 18-year-old said, “I made a mistake. If I could take it back, I would take it back.” Deveau is expected to serve one year in prison.
