Vehicular Homicide Conviction for Death of 2 PCHS students in June of 2015

On June 17, 2015, three Paulding County young people, Janeal Priester, her brother Joshua Priester and friend Nick Wright, set out from the Priesters’ home in Dallas to visit the Priesters’ mother in the hospital; they drove to the end of Old Villa Rica Road in Dallas Georgia, where it intersected with Highway 61 near Paulding County High School. As the driver, Janeal, approached Highway 61, and turned on to the roadway, her vehicle was struck by a southbound vehicle driven by Sarah Elizabeth Dowdy traveling in excess of seventy-five miles per hour in a 55-MPH zone. Janeal Priester and Nick Wright were killed and Joshua Priester was seriously injured and immediately hospitalized after being air lifted to WellStar Kennestone Hospital.
The case was initially presented to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office as a misdemeanor vehicular homicide. However, after a thorough review of the meticulous report submitted by the Georgia State Patrol, additional examination by the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office Investigators, and the re-interviewing of witnesses, an indictment charging two counts of Homicide by Vehicle in the First Degree, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-393(a), speeding, serious injury by vehicle and reckless driving was handed up by the Paulding County Grand Jury on July 13, 2016.
This case was tried before a jury in Paulding Superior Court over a four day period beginning August 28, 2017, by Paulding Judicial Circuit Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Rollins. The State called ten witnesses and tendered over 300 exhibits. The Defendant called only one witness.
The jury returned guilty verdicts on all five counts of the indictment on Thursday, August 31, 2017. Sarah Dowdy was sentenced to twenty years, with ten years to be served in confinement. Miss Dowdy was taken into custody immediately after the verdict was returned. Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office personnel who worked tirelessly to bring justice to these victims included Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Rollins, Janette Cox, Victim-Witness Advocate, and former Senior Assistant District Attorney Luana Nolen, among others.

Dick Donovan District Attorney Paulding Judicial Circuit