Criminal history includes drug, DWI arrests
A Harvey man who pled guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular negligent injuring after striking a vehicle and sending it into a Hahnville High School bus has a criminal history of both drug distribution and driving while intoxicated, according to court documents.
Richard T. Laurent, 46, was intoxicated on the prescription drug Alprazolam, which is also known as Xanax, when he rear-ended a vehicle driven by 40-year-old Paula Nazio that was traveling westbound on Highway 90 on Jan. 16. Nazio’s vehicle then crossed the median and struck a bus carrying 30 high school students, according to state police.
Nazio died on Jan. 17 from injuries sustained in the crash and four students and the bus driver were injured.
According to the accident report, a witness who saw the wreck had been following Laurent since Avondale and said that Laurent’s vehicle swerved into the median at several locations prior to the crash. When the witness passed Laurent, he said that he had a “dazed look about him.”
When Laurent approached slower-moving traffic past the I-310 exit, the witness said that Laurent did not make any attempt to slow down before striking Nazio’s vehicle.
A state trooper, who spoke with Laurent at St. Charles Parish Hospital following the crash, said the Harvey man seemed lethargic and gave conflicting reports about how the wreck was caused. He also told the officer that he had taken many different types of prescription medication that day.
According to parish prosecutor Bill Star, a state trooper said that Laurent was still intoxicated when he was rebooked with vehicular homicide after Nazio passed away a day after the crash.
“There is no doubt that he was intoxicated when the crash occurred,” Star said.
In fact, Laurent was arrested in 2000 and charged with the possession, distribution and manufacture of schedule IV drugs. Examples of schedule IV narcotics include Xanax and Valium.
That same year, Laurent was also arrested for driving while intoxicated.
On July 16, Laurent pled guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular negligent injuring. He agreed to a 10-year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
He was sentenced on Aug. 6 in Judge Emile St. Pierre’s courtroom.
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