A man entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to prison in a 2020 vehicular homicide case in Glynn County, the district attorney for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit announced Monday.
Brandon Eugene Mack, 35, of Ellenwood, Georgia, on Friday pleaded guilty to homicide by a vehicle in the first degree and hit-and-run, both of which are felonies.
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Following the entry of a non-negotiated guilty plea as to his sentencing, Superior Court Judge Roger B. Lane sentenced Mack to the maximum of 15 years in prison for the vehicular homicide charge, followed by an additional five years of probation for the hit-and-run charge.
The charges stem from a crash that occurred on Christmas Day 2020, shutting down Interstate 95 for a 5-mile stretch from Golden Isles Parkway to Georgia Highway 99 for more than four hours.
Around 4:30 a.m. Dec. 25. 2020, William “Billy” Snyder, 45, of Norfolk, Virginia, along with his wife, Megan, their then-2-year-old son, William, and their then 12-year-old nephew, Jaden, were traveling south on I-95 in Glynn County in a Hyundai Santa Fe, heading to Tampa, Florida, for Christmas, when a Chevrolet Impala driven by Mack rear-ended the SUV, prosecutors said. The Snyder’s vehicle then hit a guardrail and flipped over multiple times.
Billy Snyder, who had recently taken over driving and was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene, according to the office of Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins.
No one else was seriously injured in the collision. Megan Snyder told News4JAX that Billy has a daughter, Haley, who was not in the car during the crash.
The Georgia State Patrol investigated the accident and said it determined that Mack was traveling at a speed over 120 mph at the time of collision. According to prosecutors, a bottle of tequila was found in his front passenger compartment, and a search warrant obtained for his blood showed his blood alcohol concentration six hours after the collision was .178.
Following the collision, Megan Snyder, unable to initially find her husband, approached Mack, who was standing by his vehicle, and asked him for help. Prosecutors said he refused, walked away from the scene, approached a driver who had stopped to assist, and told the driver, “He didn’t do nothing.” When the driver went to get his phone to call 911, Mack told him not to call 911 and asked to get in his car to drive away, according to prosecutors. When the driver refused, Mack offered him money, prosecutors said. Mack then continued to walk south on I-95, made contact with a second driver who had stopped, knocked on her window, and told her, “You guys never saw me,” prosecutors said.
Mack was eventually found by law enforcement walking south on the interstate and was arrested.
According to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, he had three prior convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol.