ROCKLAND, Maine — A Spruce Head man who was sentenced earlier this year to nine months in jail for his role in a 2014 car crash that killed one woman and left another with life-altering injuries was ordered this week to spend additional time in jail for violating probation.
Samuel Simmons, 21, was sentenced Wednesday in Knox County Unified Court to 30 days in jail for violating his probation.
Simmons had been sentenced in January in the same courthouse to 12 years in prison with all but nine months suspended for manslaughter and driving to endanger. He also was ordered to serve probation for four years after he got out of jail.
One of the terms of his probation was that he not consume alcohol.
Simmons was released from the Knox County Jail on July 19 and had his first meeting with his probation officer on July 28. He served less than nine months because he was credited for good behavior.
According to a report filed in court by the Rockland Police Department, on July 30 officers noticed a young man lying next to a building near a downtown pub. The man was vomiting and officers checked on his well-being. Simmons identified himself and told officers he had one too many drinks, but failed to inform them he was on probation.
Officers later checked and found he was on probation with the stipulations that he not drink and that he inform police of being on probation if questioned.
Simmons was driving north on Route 1 in Warren on the morning of March 20, 2014, when his pickup truck crossed the centerline near the intersection of Western Road and struck head-on an oncoming 2003 car driven by Alison Low of Warren.
Low, 38, died at the scene. Her 18-year-old son, Dustin Kimball of Warren, was seriously injured but recovered. Kimball’s girlfriend, Olivia Blachet, was severely injured and spent more than five months at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Simmons admitted to police that he had smoked marijuana the night before. Tests done on Simmons found traces of marijuana and amphetamine in his system. A witness reported Simmons’ vehicle weaving on the road for a few miles leading up to where the crash occurred.
Blachet, who was pregnant at the time of the crash, pointed out in a letter to the court in January that the crash robbed her of the opportunity to bond with her daughter when she was born.
Family members had sought a longer sentence.
Justice Daniel Billings had stressed at the January hearing that the basic sentence is 12 years and that if Simmons committed any additional offenses, he would serve a lot more time than the nine months.
Low’s family settled for $1.1 million a few weeks after Simmons entered his no contest plea.
Last year, Blachet, now 19, received a $5 million judgment in a civil suit against Simmons for negligence.
Simmons did not have motor vehicle insurance, however, and it was not made clear how either of the judgments might be collected.