Impaired driver who fatally struck 2 Nevada state troopers gets maximum sentence

LAS VEGAS– A man who drove while impaired two state troops fatally wounded sentenced to prison last year on Nevada’s busiest highway.

Jemarcus Williams received the maximum sentence of 16 to 40 years on Tuesday for two counts of drunken driving causing death, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported reported. He pleaded guilty to the charges in April.

The crash on the morning of Nov. 30 happened on a stretch of Interstate 15 near downtown Las Vegas. Trooper Alberto Felix and Sgt. Michael Abbate had stopped to check on a driver on the highway when Williams struck them both and fled.

Williams, 46, evaded authorities for hours before police discovered the car he was driving at a nearby apartment complex, leading to his arrest. Williams has been in jail since the day of the crash.

At his sentencing, Alberto Felix’s widow told a courtroom full of family members and uniformed law enforcement officers that her husband and Abbate “had dreams, plans and had a lot of life left in them.”

“It wasn’t just police officers,” Arlene Felix said. “They had family, friends and colleagues who loved them.”

Abbate’s mother said she is still struggling with the grief of losing her son, whose injuries were so severe that the family had to hold a closed-casket funeral service.

“My heart hurts every second,” Judith Abbate said. “I’m half dead.”

Williams said before he was sentenced that he made a stupid decision to drive that morning despite “all available options for safe transportation.”

“I hate the stupid, ignorant decision I made, which ultimately had devastating and traumatic consequences,” he said.

Sergeant Abbate joined the State Police in December 2013 and had recently been promoted to sergeant before his death. Alberto Felix enlisted in 2019 after serving in the United States Air Force. Both men also leave behind young sons.