By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter in a drunken-driving case stemming from a fatal accident in October in downtown Joplin and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Francisco Espinoza III, formerly of Noel, changed his plea to guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. The plea change was part of an agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office that limited the prison time Espinoza might be assessed to four years.
The defendant waived his right to a sentencing-assessment report as part of the agreement.
Circuit Judge Gayle Crane accepted the plea bargain and assessed Espinoza the four-year term in prison. The judge ordered that the sentence run concurrently with any prison time Espinoza must serve as a consequence of probation violations in McDonald County.
Espinoza led Joplin police on a brief vehicle chase Oct. 11 through the downtown area after an officer tried to pull him over for running a flashing red light at Fourth and Main streets. The pursuit ended when Espinoza sped up and lost control of the sport utility vehicle he was driving as it crossed the railroad tracks on Fifth Street west of Murphy Boulevard, and the vehicle crashed and burst into flames.
A passenger, Anita L. Lizotte, 46, of Joplin, died at the scene of the early morning crash.
Espinoza and Lizotte were the only occupants of the vehicle. Espinoza was taken to a Joplin hospital and later was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving with a revoked license and involuntary manslaughter in the first degree. A conviction on the manslaughter charge carries up to seven years in prison in Missouri.
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