Man pleads guilty to vehicular homicide

PORTALES — A Lubbock man walked out of the Roosevelt County Detention Center on Monday as a convicted felon after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide and fleeing from a law enforcement officer.

Assistant District Attorney Jake Boazman said Jerry Nale, 20, pleaded guilty to the charges Monday after serving more than 500 days in jail.

He was also placed on five years of probation.

Nale was arrested in May 2016 on felony charges of vehicular homicide, aggravated fleeing, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles.

Officials said Nale lost control of a vehicle in the process of fleeing Portales police officers. The vehicle rolled and Nale and Trinity Jackson, 16, were ejected.

Jackson was transported to a Lubbock hospital where she later died.

Jackson’s 14-year-old brother was also injured but recovered.

Nale told police he had taken Trinity Jackson and her brother to Portales from their home in Lubbock in hopes they could live at a Portales children’s home.

Boazman said the state was comfortable with the plea agreement because Nale has already served a significant amount of the six-year sentence he was facing.

“With him having served that amount of time, and based on the circumstances of how the vehicular homicide occurred, I do think this is a fair resolution,” he said.

Nale’s attorney Jonathan Miller said that while his victim is happy with the result, “he is a victim in this case as well.”

“He has some mental issues, and feels tremendous remorse for his actions,” he said.

Miller said Nale intends to move back to his home in Lubbock.

Boazman added that his office is hopeful Nale learned a lesson from the incident.

“He’ll be on probation and he’ll have supervision. The incident itself was very sad, and it was a terrible loss,” he said.