Five year sentence suspended for truck driver who killed bicyclist while talking on phone

A Jefferson Parish judge has accepted a guilty plea from a truck driver who ran over and killed a bicyclist, then let him free.

Philemon Lyons-Feemster admitted he tried to pass Pedro Manzuela-Villa in the no passing zone in the S curve on River Road in Marrero, while he was talking on the phone in the cab of his truck while pulling a tanker trailer.

"As the tractor-trailer entered the curve, the trailer’s right rear wheels left the roadway. Manzuela-Villa was struck by the side of the tanker trailer and knocked to the ground. He fell beneath the rear wheels and died at the scene," District Attorney's Public Information Officer Paul Purpura wrote in a news release.

He says in cab video and cell phone records show the 29-year-old truck driver was speaking with someone on the phone at the time.

"Judge Stephen Enright of the 24th Judicial District Court, in accepting the guilty plea, sentenced Lyons-Feemster to five years in prison - the maximum punishment for negligent homicide. Judge Enright suspended the sentence and ordered Lyons-Feemster to serve three years of active probation."

Purpura says 32-year-old Manzuela-Villa was wearing a helmet and was training for a bicycling competition while riding on the extreme right edge of the roadway when he was run over and killed.