A man who killed another with his car, breaking the victim’s skull in a drug deal gone wrong, is going to prison.
On Feb. 24, Lamont Eugene Williams was sentenced for second-degree unintentional murder in the death of Alexif Loeza Galvan. Williams pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to 12.5 years in a Minnesota prison.
Prosecutors argued that the 22-year-old accelerated his car after attempting to rob Galvan during a drug deal, which resulted in Galvan’s death. Meanwhile, the defense claimed that Williams was assaulted by Galvin and therefore accelerated the car to avoid harm.
As Williams’ attorney Katherine Claffey told Oxygen.com, “He was trying to avoid the peril of danger.”
Last March, according to a statement of probable cause document obtained by Oxygen.com, officers from the Bloomington Police Department responded to an accident scene in which Galvan lay in the road with broken bones and difficulty breathing.
Galvan was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Galvan’s family told police that, earlier in the day, per the probable cause, Galvan had received a call from Williams, who was going to buy marijuana from Galvan. According to Galvan’s mother, her son informed her he was going to “sell something” and left.
Two minutes later, Galvan’s mother heard yelling from outside, per the document, and she saw her son leaning into the passenger seat of an SUV while someone pulled a backpack back and forth. She said the car then lurched forward, leaving Galvan lying on the street.
Galvan’s preliminary cause of death was blunt force trauma, per an autopsy report cited in the probable cause statement, which noted his injuries as a skull fracture, a brain bleed, a head contusion, facial bruising, and fractures of the cheek, ribs and left clavicle. Galvan also had road rash on the lower half of his body, in which rocks and gravel were embedded.
“This was a horrible death,” Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Krista White said in court, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “He was dragged down to the bone, his skull was crushed.”
Police found a 9mm handgun on the front passenger seat of Williams’ car, per the probable cause statement, and a backpack containing 263.87 grams of marijuana.
A search of Williams’ phone revealed a conversation between him and Galvan, in which Williams asked Galvan if he had any “smoke,” according to the probable cause statement, before they discussed pricing. Williams then wrote, “Finna be on my way to you like 20 min” and Galvan sent his address. Williams later wrote Galvan, “Here” and clarified he was sitting in his Jeep.
Location data cited in the statement traced William’s phone moving away from the area of Galvan’s home and a few minutes later, a message from Williams to Galvan read, “My fault gang I had to.”
Claffey said Wiliams plans to appeal his sentence.
“This is a tragedy for both families,” she told Oxygen.com. “One young adult has lost his life and for another one, his life is altered forever.”
