Man gets 17 years for firing gun, crashing into school bus on South Hill
A Pierce County man who crashed a stolen car into a school bus full of children in South Hill after firing a gun at another motorist was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison.
A jury convicted 35-year-old Sopheap Chith in 2014 of multiple felonies stemming from the rampage, including second-degree assault and drive-by shooting.
He originally was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2013 incident, but the state Court of Appeals invalidated one of his convictions and sent him back to Pierce County to be re-sentenced.
Superior Court Judge Katherine Stolz sentenced Chith to 206 months at the request of deputy prosecutor Jesse Williams.
Prosecutors said Chith stole a Honda Civic and was driving south on Meridian Avenue when a witness saw him fire two shots out the window. Chith then fired at the witness, who had begun following him, and later ran a red light and slammed into a bus carrying elementary school children, court records show.
No one was hurt.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644, @TNTAdam
This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Man gets 17 years for firing gun, crashing into school bus on South Hill."