Branch to serve 11 years in jail

Published 3:16 pm Tuesday, January 9, 2018

A 23-year-old Burkeville man was sentenced Thursday to an active term of 10 years and 20 days in jail in connection with a crash that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Shelly Warner, according to the Virginia Court Case Information database.

Torrey Jamal Branch

Torey Jamal Branch also received suspended jail sentences amounting to six years, 11 months and 10 days in addition to 30 years of unsupervised probation and 99 years of supervised probation.

According to the database, Branch pled guilty to involuntary DUI manslaughter, guilty to DUI, reckless driving, victim permanently injured; possession of marijuana; DUI third or subsequent offense and driving after forfeiting license.

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On charges of failing to drive on the right side of the road, reckless driving and second offense of driving with a revoked license, he was found nolle prosequi, meaning the charges were abandoned by the court.

He was also ordered to pay $1,706.50 in court costs and a fine of $500.

The accident the charges stem from occurred Nov. 26, 2016 on Route 15 less than one mile south of Route 630, Red Road, in Buckingham.

The fatal accident that claimed the life of Warner also seriously injured her husband, Jessy Warner. Their 9-month-old son, Timothy, was injured too.

Shelly died at the scene of the early-morning collision, according to Virginia State Police.

“A 2008 Chevrolet Impala was traveling north on Route 15 when it crossed the centerline into the southbound lane and struck head-on a 2000 Buick LeSabre,” Virginia State Police Public Relations Director Corinne Geller said in an earlier release.

Branch was transported to U.Va. Hospital in Charlottesville for treatment of serious but non-life threatening injuries.

“She enjoyed life, enjoyed her family,” Christopher Hash said in a previous interview regarding his daughter, Shelly.

The oldest of three girls, Shelly also enjoyed the arts, drawing and caring for children, both at home and in high school, her father said.

“She liked art class, and she did help with some child care across the street from the high school (at the preschool) where the little kids used to go,” Hash said.

Shelly was not only proud of her accomplishments but of her marriage and family, Hash said.

“She was definitely proud of her marriage and her family,” Hash said of his daughter, adding that she and Jessy enjoyed hunting together.

“Not as often as, I guess, they wanted to, but she’d go (hunt) periodically with him,” Hash said.