A local man will spend the next 25 years in prison for causing a 2019 collision on Palestine Road that killed a man and injured his wife.
Records indicate Judge Jimmy McClure sentenced Jeffery Dean Wages, 49, of Coldwater, to the maximum of 25 years in Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) after he pled guilty to DUI causing death and 15 years post-release supervision after pleading guilty to DUI causing serious bodily injury in Tate County Circuit Court earlier this month.
Wages was indicted by the Tate County Grand Jury in January in connection with an accident near the 4400 block of Palestine Road outside of Coldwater on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, at approximately 7:45 p.m.
A man, identified by Tate County Sheriff’s Investigator Lisa Sanders as 71-year old Larry Joe Miller of Coldwater, died from injuries he sustained in the crash. Tate County Coroner Pat Kizziah pronounced Miller dead at the scene.
Sanders said Miller was driving a 2000 Chevrolet extended cab pickup, in which his wife was a passenger, on Palestine Road when it collided with a 2003 Chevrolet flatbed utility truck driven by Jeffery Wages of Coldwater.
Miller’s wife, Jeanette, was transported from the scene of the accident to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis with serious injuries, according to Sanders.
Wages, who was released from the Tate County Jail under a $100,000 bond, was charged with another DUI in DeSoto County this summer after he was involved in a traffic accident in Hernando.
Kyle Hodge, Operations Captain with the Hernando Police Department, said Wages was arrested Saturday, Aug. 15, after he backed into another vehicle in the parking lot of Brick Oven Pizza Co., in the 2400 block of East Parkway Street in Hernando.
Hodge said no one was injured in the incident and Wages later bonded out of the Desoto County Adult Detention Facility.
A bench warrant was issued for Wages’ arrest in Tate County, which led to a bond revocation hearing. Wages was housed at the Tate County Jail from August until his sentencing date in circuit court.
