A Baldwin County judge handed down the maximum sentence Thursday for a Montgomery man convicted in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 19-year-old college student during Spring Break in Gulf Shores in 2014.
Judge Joseph Norton sentenced Justin Lott, 30, to 20 years in prison following an emotional hearing at the Baldwin County Courthouse in Bay Minette. A jury had convicted Lott in May of manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident and assault in connection with the March 2014 crash.
According to testimony at trial, Lott’s truck was headed west along the 1400 block of West Beach Boulevard in the early morning hours when it struck a young woman walking along a bike path with two friends toward the condominium where she was staying with sorority sisters during Spring Break. She died at the scene. Lott’s truck did not stop.
Police pulled Lott over a short time later and arrested him after he failed a field sobriety test. Investigators said he had spent the previous night at a gathering in Orange Beach connected to his brother’s bachelor party, and while he admitted to officers that he had been drinking, he later declined a breath test at the police department and again declined to have his blood alcohol level checked at a nearby hospital, despite initially agreeing to do so. A police detective who testified during the trial acknowledged he had not sought a court order to compel a blood alcohol reading, a decision he described as a mistake. Investigators recovered beer cans from inside Lott’s truck, though he maintained he had not been drinking from them.
Lott has remained in custody at the Baldwin County Corrections Center since the jury’s verdict. His attorney asked the court to release him so he could return to his job in Montgomery ahead of sentencing, but the judge declined the request. Defense attorneys indicated they intend to appeal the conviction.
The case drew significant attention along the Alabama Gulf Coast, where Spring Break traffic and late-night pedestrian activity along beach roads have long raised safety concerns for local law enforcement and residents alike.