Drunk Driver Sentenced to Prison for 2004 Fatal Crash

MAY 30, 2006 --  A man was sentenced in Columbus County Tuesday for a crime he says he was too drunk to remember committing.

Jose Jesus Garcia Lopez was sentenced to 59 to 81 months in prison. Lopez was convicted last week of involuntary manslaughter and a felony charge in a car crash that killed a Tabor City woman in 2004. The head-on collision killed 20-year-old Natalie Housand.

Lopez said during the trial that he was too drunk to remember the details of the crash, but he claimed his brother was driving the car they were in.

Reported by Kacey Gaumer