On Friday, Jimmy Allen Nichols, 19, 310 Guntown Road, Rogersville, was sentenced to two years and one day in prison by Circuit Judge James Beckner in exchange for a guilty plea to the reduced charge of reckless homicide, a Class D felony.

Nichols had originally been charged with vehicular homicide as a result of a single-car accident on June 25, 2005, on Kyle Valley Road north of Rogersville near the Hancock County line that killed his father, Danny Nichols.

Vehicular homicide is a Class B felony with a penalty range between eight and 12 years.

The accident occurred when Jimmy Nichols apparently lost control of the vehicle, left the roadway, and the car overturned.

"The proof showed that Jimmy Nichols was right on the borderline for being legally intoxicated, he was underage, and it further developed that his father was actually the one who provided him the alcohol," Assistant Attorney General Doug Godbee said Wednesday. "His father was the passenger in the car who was killed in the accident. All the family members signed affidavits asking that he be reduced to reckless homicide, and there was no objection to that from the prosecuting officer Billy Collier with the Tennessee Highway Patrol."

Nichols will be eligible for parole after serving 30 percent of his sentence, or a little more than seven months.

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