British expat Luke Armstrong was convicted this afternoon of causing a fireball car crash that left one man dead and two people injured.

The jury found him guilty by unanimous verdict after less than two hours of deliberations. The 25-year-old was sentenced to 15 months in prison by Justice Norma Wade-Miller.

Armstrong was behind the wheel of a heavy truck that he was not licensed to drive when it veered onto the wrong side of the road in the early hours of April 5 and hit a car being driven by Winston (Yogi) Burrows, 44.

Mr. Burrows — who had a paralysed hand from a previous road accident 12 years before — was killed by the impact of the crash. He remained trapped in the vehicle as it burst into flames. Tests later showed he had alcohol and cocaine in his system.

His good friend Evelyn Rewan, 30, who was in the back seat of the car, suffered severe injuries including a broken neck, broken knee, broken toe, and a laceration that ripped her forehead open down to the skull.

Fellow rear-seat passenger Honest Masawi, a 46-year-old Zimbabwean, managed to escape with a bad cut over his eye. He helped drag Ms Rewan, a mother of three, to safety before the car exploded but was unable to free Mr. Burrows from the wreckage.

Armstrong, who worked for Arctic Air Conditioning but has since lost his job, appeared to be drunk when the Police arrested him in the hours after the crash. However, the results of the breath-test he gave were never shared with the jury.

He was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving, two counts of causing injury by dangerous driving and one of driving without a valid license. He showed little emotion as the verdict was delivered and his parents, David and Teresa, left court without comment.

Speaking after the verdict, Mr. Burrows’ sister Ayanna Roberts, 33, said: “I’m happy. Justice has been served.”

Mr. Burrows was an odd-job man who helped out at Warwick gas station. His sister said: “I saw him two weeks before it happened at his job. We just talked about everything and he asked how my children were. He was a good brother and role model for me and I miss him very much.”

The trial had heard from Police collision investigators Sergeant Emmerson Carrington and Inspector Philip Lewis who both stated that Armstrong’s pickup truck — which was heading west — was in the eastbound lane Mr. Burrows was travelling in when the collision occurred.

They reached that conclusion due to gouge marks in Mr. Burrows’ lane caused when the undercarriage of the vehicles dipped in the collision. They also told the jury that scrape marks on the road surface beginning in Mr. Burrows’ lane were caused by the exposed steering arm of the truck after its wheel was knocked off in the collision. And, they said, physical damage to both vehicles and debris in the road supported their opinions.

Watch this website for updates after Armstrong is sentenced and read the full story in tomorrow’s edition of the paper.

* Full story in tomorrow’s Royal Gazette