UPDATE: The jury sentenced Parks to eight years in prison Wednesday. The DMN has a comprehensive story on the trial and reaction.
ORIGINAL POST: A jury today found 55-year-old Tim Parks guilty of manslaughter in the death of Roy Salinas in a drunken-driving incident last year. Parks did not have a driver’s license and had past convictions for drunk driving. He hit Salinas, who was on a motor scooter, going the wrong way on one-way Cole Avenue.
Parks could receive up to 20 years in prison after a sentencing hearing that begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Many of Salinas’s Oak Cliff pals were in the courtroom for the entire trial. One of them, Hollis Wakefield, sent us this report:
Oak Cliff resident Roy Salinas, 32, was killed by a drunk driver on July 28, 2011. He was riding his vintage scooter home from Mockingbird Station where he had just watched “Larry Crowne” with over 100 other scooter enthusiasts. Roy turned from Fitzhugh onto Cole. At that same moment, Tim Parks had just left Komali, where he had a glass of wine, and was taking Komali bartender Jeffrey Dickey home. Parks doesn’t have a driver’s license or a car, so he was driving Khanh Dao’s champagne-colored Mercedes. As they exited the parking lot, Dickey testified that he noticed Parks turning right on Cole. He reminded Parks that it’s a one-way street, but Parks replied, “Look what I can do,” and accelerated northbound onto Cole, intending to cross up and over into the Sigel’s liquor store parking lot. There was no way for Roy to avoid hitting the passenger’s side of the car, and he was left lying in the middle of Cole as Parks eased the Mercedes into the Siglel’s parking lot. According to Dickey’s testimony, Parks attempted to get Dickey to say he was driving the car at the time of the accident, but Dickey refused.
