Hiawatha man's vehicular homicide conviction upheld by appeals court

A Hiawatha man's vehicular homicide conviction in 2010 was upheld Wednesday by the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Troy Fox, 36, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for vehicular homicide Oct. 22, 2010 in Linn County District Court. Fox was intoxicated, over three times the legal limit, when he drove himself and his friend Ruben Mayo, 32, of Hiawatha, home Oct. 5, 2009, according to trial testimony. Fox lost control of his car on I-380, near Collins Road, and collided with a light pole.

Mayo suffered spinal cord injury and had irreversible paralysis, according to trial testimony. He had cervical fractures at multiple levels of the spine and was paralyzed from the mid-neck down. Mayo couldn't breathe on his own, only with a ventilator.

Fox claimed there wasn't sufficient evidence to support the vehicular homicide charge because Mayo chose to remove life support Oct. 11, 2009 after learning his condition was irreversible, according to the appeal. Fox claimed that decision constituted an intervening and superseding cause of death.

Mayo's decision to remove life support after consulting with doctors was a "normal" consequence of the harm inflicted by Fox's criminal conduct, and not a superseding cause of death, the appeals court concluded. A defendant can't escape criminal responsibility for homicide because factors other than his own acts contributed to the death, provided those factors aren't the sole cause of the death, according to the appeal.

The court also stated there was substantial evidence presented at trial to support the homicide by vehicle charge.