Mookie Blaylock Gets Three Years in Jail for Vehicular Homicide

47-year-old former NBAer Mookie Blaylock was sentenced to 15 years behind bars (and will serve just three) for causing a head-on collision, killing Monica Murphy — a mother of five — on May 31, 2013.

Blaylock was seriously hurt in the accident, and was temporarily placed on life support.

Mookie had been in a long-term residential program for treatment of addiction, and his lawyers said the wreck was due to a blackout stemming from a medical condition.

Per the AJC:

The fall from NBA standout to prison was one of basketball honors and DUI convictions. Blaylock starred in the NBA All-Star game 20 years ago, had his Oklahoma Sooners jersey retired in honor 2001 and retired a feted player — twice on the NBA’s All-Defense Team — despite a bumpy ending with the Golden State Warriors in 2002.

 

The negotiated plea came on the day jury selection was to start for his trial, his attorney Amanda Palmer said.

 

The toxicology screens showed no alcohol in Blaylock’s system at the time of the crash, Palmer said. The reckless driving, vehicular homicide charges arose because doctors had told him not to drive because he was prone to seizures attributed to alcoholism, she said. He had been arrested for DUI a month before the crash and he had “several past DUI convictions,” Palmer said.