Iowa Supreme Court won't review Hiawatha man's vehicular homicide conviction

The Iowa Supreme Court denied further review Thursday of a Hiawatha man's vehicular homicide conviction in 2010.

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.

Mayo chose to remove life support Oct. 11, 2009 after learning his condition was irreversible, but the appeals court found Mayo's decision to remove life support after consulting with doctors was a "normal" consequence of the harm inflicted by Fox's criminal conduct. The court also stated there was substantial evidence presented at trial to support the homicide by vehicle charge.

Fox's conviction was previously

upheld in November by the Iowa Court of Appeals.