Thomas Gilley has battled addiction nearly his entire life, a defense attorney said as the 27-year-old was sent to prison Thursday for a fatal crash in November.
A Marble man has admitted that he was high when he crashed his SUV into another vehicle on Highway 5 in November 2020, a head-on collision that killed 39-year-old Franklin D. Rice of Hibbing.
Thomas Michael Gilley, 27, pleaded guilty Monday in St. Louis County District Court to one felony count of criminal vehicular homicide. Minnesota statutes show that he faces a maxim of 10 years in prison if convicted.
Gilley had initially been charged with two of the felony counts, but he entered a plea deal which dropped one and called on prosecutors to seek a sentence that aligns with the state guidelines, as first reported by the Star Tribune.
An Iron Range man was jailed late last week in Pine County after allegedly possessing numerous controlled substances while skipping out on court-mandated house arrest.
Thomas Michael Gilley, 27, faced an active warrant for his arrest on April 30, when authorities say he violated stipulations of his supervised release and was found possessing drugs about 75 miles from his assigned treatment center.
A St. Louis County judge in Hibbing approved an increased bail amount for Gilley on April 6, raising it to $200,000, stemming from December 2020 charges of vehicular homicide in Hibbing. He was originally released on $100,000 bail earlier this year, but prosecutors successfully pushed for a higher bail amount and house arrest after he was arrested for suspicion of DWI in March.
Increased bail was approved for an Iron Range man accused of vehicular homicide after prosecutors alleged that he was driving impaired during a separate accident on March 18.
New charges have yet to be filed against Thomas Michael Gilley, 27, for the single-vehicle crash last month that damaged a power pole on Townline in Hibbing. He is already accused of killing one person in a December 2020 crash while under the influence of a controlled substance.
As of Friday, blood tests from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are still pending from the March crash, but Sixth Judicial District Judge Mark M. Starr approved the higher bail amount requested by Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Stacey Sundquist.
HIBBING â An Iron Range man facing vehicular homicide charges will have to wait until at least next week to find out if heâs headed back to custody after being arrested for suspicion of DWI last month.
Thomas Michael Gilley of Hibbing was charged in December 2020 with vehicular homicide after he allegedly drove head-on into another vehicle one month earlier while under the influence of a controlled substance. On March 18, 2021, he was reportedly involved in a single-vehicle accident on Town Line Road in Hibbing, where law enforcement obtained a warrant for blood sample after he crashed into power lines and sustained apparent minor injuries.