The bus driver convicted of negligent homicide in January for a 2016 crash on Interstate 10 in LaPlace that killed an on-duty firefighter and two other men received the maximum 15-year prison sentence on Monday.
Denis Amaya Rodriguez, a Honduran immigrant who was in the country illegally, also was fined $5,000.
Judge J. Sterling Snowdy of 40th Judicial District Court said Amaya deserved the 15-year sentence for failing to protect passengers in his care as well as creating immense misery for the families and communities of the three men he killed: St. John the Baptist Parish Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin, Vontarous Kelly and Jermaine Starr.
Amaya was sentenced to five years for each man that jurors convicted him of killing through negligence.