NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The drunk driver who killed two bicycle riders and injured seven following a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade in March has received a 90-year prison sentence.
The District Attorney’s Office says state Judge Laurie White gave 32-year-old Tashonty Toney the maximum sentence Tuesday. The sentencing hearing came a day after he pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide, and a week after he pleaded guilty to multiple related charges.
New Orleans news organizations at the hearing said Toney apologized. But a prosecutor questioned his sincerity. A recorded jailhouse phone call revealed Toney laughing following victim impact statements Monday. And it captured Toney’s sister using a racial epithet while talking about the parents of one of those killed — a black woman named Sharree Walls.
Toney also is black.