A man will be spending holidays behind bars for the next three years after pleading guilty to causing a crash that killed one of his high school classmates in 2018.
A Cherokee County judge sentenced Yann Fredrick Engamba to serve the next 12 months in jail and the next 15 years on probation. In addition, Superior Court Judge David Cannon specified that Engamba will serve 40 days in custody each year for the next three years, beginning the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
Engamba, 20, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle and reckless driving in the crash that killed 17-year-old Stephen Smith, District Attorney Shannon Wallace said in a statement. The pair were classmates at Creekview High in Canton, she said.
Witnesses said Engamba had been driving “in a reckless manner” on Old Orange Mill Road and was not maintaining his lane moments before the crash on Nov. 27, 2018.
At some point, the car carrying Engamba, Smith and two other Creekview High students veered off the side of the road and smashed into a tree, officials said.
Chase Burr, 17, was seriously injured in the crash. It is not clear if the fourth student was injured.
“Three young people made the decision to climb into Engamba’s car and take a ride, never expecting Engamba to put their lives in danger,” Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney David Holmes said. “Instead of exercising due care to his passengers, Engamba chose to speed and drive recklessly. His actions led to a collision that ended the life of a promising young man and severely injured another.”
Prosecutors said Cannon handed down Engamba’s sentence to ensure he would spend “the anniversary of this tragedy in custody.” The sentence was also to ensure that Engamba would not be able to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day at home in the coming years, Wallace said.
In addition to the jail time, Engamba was ordered to serve 2,400 hours of community service, pay restitution, take a defensive driving course and have no contact with the victims’ friends or families.
”This was an unnecessary tragedy. A young life with so much promise was lost, and another life was permanently altered,” Wallace said.
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