COBB COUNTY, GA — Jerome Cox, 69, has been sentenced to 12 months and won’t get first offender treatment or credit for time served after being convicted of vehicular homicide and failure to exercise due care or caution for a pedestrian. He was found not guilty on all other counts. The jury gave their verdict on Friday, December 6 in the afternoon.

Cox was charged in the death of 17-year-old Harrison High School student, Olivia Pugh, who he hit as she and several of her friends were leaving a holiday light display on Ben King Road in Kennesaw last December.

The prosecution had claimed the then 68-year-old Powder Springs man was driving drunk, but the defense argued there was no way to prove that since Cox refused to take a breathalyzer. Defense attorneys also argued that Pugh was not in the intersection and had darted into the road.

A witness testified that he and his family crossed Ben King Road and heard what sounded like a crash behind him.

“The only thing I could think of was the girls that had been behind us,” said Charles Herbough. “Then, I heard the girls on the other side screaming, ‘She’s been hit! She’s been hit!’”

The crash threw Pugh upon impact.

Herbough described finding her shoes and socks before her. She died in the hospital two days later.