Man gets 8.5 years in DUI crash that killed Carbondale teen
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TOPEKA (KSNT) – A Scranton man has learned his fate after admitting to causing a deadly 2023 crash that claimed the life of a Carbondale teen.
The Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office says Anthony R. Tugwell is sentenced to 102 months, or eight-and-a-half years, with the Kansas Department of Corrections.
The sentence comes from a crash in February, 2023 which killed 16-year-old Alyssa Lee in Shawnee County. Kansas Highway Patrol troopers responded to the crash on Highway 75 in which a wrong-way driver had hit another vehicle head-on.
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Alyssa Lee died in the crash. She was a student at Santa Fe Trail School in Osage County and planned to pursue a career in the mental health field. Her father, James Lee, spoke with 27 News in late 2023 about Tugwell’s ongoing court case. He sent the following message to 27 News following the sentencing:
“There is no justice, no fixing it, no making it better. The best we can hope for now is to claw something positive out of our pain, in hopes of lessening the pain of others in the future. To that end, I’m not done. The closest I can get to justice is to continue to advocate for Alyssa, and the only way I know how to do that is to make the world a better place in her name. The entire judicial process is disgustingly absent of acknowledgement of victims, and it is now my primary mission in life to advocate on behalf of victims in pursuit of getting them the bare minimum of proper acknowledgement.
Eight & a half years. What a disgusting joke.”
James Lee
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Anthony Tugwell’s mugshot. (Photo Courtesy/Shawnee County Department of Corrections) Alyssa Lee. (Photo Courtesy/Victoria McPherson)
Tugwell was arrested on Feb. 18, 2023 on charges of aggravated assault, driving under the influence and driving on the opposite direction of a highway. The Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office later charged him on Feb. 22, 2023 with involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and other crimes.
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On Feb. 26, 2024, Tugwell agreed to plea guilty to three charges while two others were dismissed. These included:
Involuntary manslaughter; while under the influence of alcohol or drugs – guilty
Driving under the influence; 1st conviction; combination of drugs and alcohol – guilty
Reckless driving – dismissed
Improper crossover on divided highway – dismissed
Aggravated battery; knowingly cause great bodily harm or disfigurement – guilty
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