Man gets life for fatal wreck

James N. Guyse didn't just cause a fatal drunken-driving crash. He committed murder, a judge ruled Friday.

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Sitting in place of a Richmond County Superior Court jury, Judge Duncan D. Wheale convicted Mr. Guyse of felony murder, four counts of aggravated assault and driving under the influence. At the conclusion of Friday's bench trial, Judge Wheale sentenced Mr. Guyse, 22, to life in prison.

Leaving the courtroom afterward, Mr. Guyse passed within feet of the mother of Janay Levy, the 17-year-old girl he killed. He said nothing. He barely glanced at the distraught mother who still needs a cane to walk 18 months after the crash that took her child.

"We were talking and laughing," Doris Harris testified earlier in describing what happened just before midnight Oct. 14, 2004, after she picked Janay up from work. The Cross Creek High School senior had finished a double shift at McDonald's, and they were on their way home, Mrs. Harris testified.

Traveling south on Mike Padgett Highway at Browns Road, she saw a car headed right for her, Mrs. Harris testified. She couldn't move to the right because a truck was in that lane. She told Janay to hold on tight.

"It looked like an explosion," Nancy Price testified. Just seconds earlier, she had run her vehicle off the road to avoid a head-on crash with the same car. She saw the crash in her rear-view mirror.

Reginald Lewis also watched the crash in his rear-view mirror. He, too, narrowly avoided a head-on collision with the erratic driver, he testified.

During the minutes they were calling 911 about the horrific wreck, a passenger in Brian Daniel's truck also was making a frantic call. On the tape played in court Friday, the unidentified woman bursts into tears telling the operator how a driver had been chasing them on Mike Padgett Highway, ramming the truck.

Brad Shackleford and another man had tried to keep Mr. Guyse from leaving the Golden Pantry on Mike Padgett Highway just minutes earlier. Mr. Guyse had stopped to buy two Smirnoff Ices. They could tell Mr. Guyse was already drunk, Mr. Shackleford said. They pleaded with Mr. Guyse, offering to drive him home or call someone for him.

"He won't listen. (Mr. Guyse) just came up with every excuse you can give," Mr. Shackleford said.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.