Jeffery Lloyd Bascom sentenced to 5 years in prison after he hit a 15-year-old with his pickup truck as he and a friend walked along the unlit shoulder of 500 West near 1200 South in Vernal.
The driver of the truck, Jeffery Lloyd Bascom, told witnesses and police he was distracted by his cellphone and never saw the boy, who was wearing a neon yellow sweatshirt when he was struck.
"What was on his phone was more important to him than the human being standing on the side of the road," Uintah County prosecutor Mike Drechsel said during Bascom's sentencing hearing Monday.
"The only person that could have prevented this from happening is the defendant," Drechsel said. "He is 100 percent to blame for the death of Tommy Clark."
Bascom, his head bowed, appeared to nod in agreement with the prosecutor's indictment. He also wiped away tears as Tommy's grandfather and parents, Tom and Evie Lesser, addressed Judge Douglas Thomas. The crash left Bascom with a broken jaw, which was still wired shut Monday, preventing him from making any statements in court.