Atlanta DUI hit-and-run convict to serve 15-year sentence

A man who was driving drunk when he killed a child in a 2013 hit-and-run wreck will spend 15 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Gatha Dyer, 44, was convicted last week of homicide by vehicle, DUI and reckless driving for the April 2013 incident that ended 11-year-old Patrick Williams' life, according to Fulton County District Attorney's spokeswoman Yvette Jones.

Dyer had three prior DUI convictions, authorities said.

On the day of the accident, prosecutors said Williams was walking along Boulder Park Drive in southwest Atlanta when Dyer sped through the area in his 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse and hit him, authorities said.

The impact sent the boy airborne more than 50 feet, before he hit the car windshield then fell to the ground, prosecutors said.

Dyer drove away, but a witness followed him long enough to record his license plate.

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