FARMINGTON — Bail has been lowered for the Industry man charged with drunken driving following the New Year’s Day accident that killed a Farmington woman.
On Wednesday, a Franklin County judge lowered bail for Tommy Clark, 25, from $75,000 cash to $50,000 cash or $50,000 in real estate, according to court documents.
Clark is charged with felony operating under the influence resulting in death and aggravated leaving the scene of an accident following the Jan. 1 crash on Wilton road that killed Taylor Gaboury, of Farmington.
He has been held at the Franklin County Jail since his arrest Jan. 1, and had not posted bail as of Thursday afternoon.
According to a motion filed by Clark’s attorney, Thomas Carey, a request to amend bail was submitted Jan. 13, because “the defendant has been adjudged indigent and does not have $75,000 to put up for bail” and “it is appropriate that the bail be reduced and amended as pre-conviction bail,” Carey said in the motion.
Carey did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
Franklin County District Attorney Claire Andrews represented the state in the case Wednesday. A call to her for comment was not returned immediately.
Gaboury, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene when Farmington police arrived around 1:40 a.m. Jan. 1.
Gaboury was walking east on Wilton Road near Franklin Memorial Hospital when Clark allegedly ran into her with his car, knocking her over an embankment.
After initially telling police he did not know what he had hit, Clark later admitted he was aware he’d hit a person, according to a police affidavit filed with the court.
He told police he stopped his car and went down the embankment where the body lay and “tried to wake her up,” but he concluded she was dead and fled the scene because “he was nervous and needed a lighter,” the affidavit, filed by Farmington Sgt. Edward Hastings IV, said.
Police found Clark at the Colonial Valley Motel in Farmington shortly after the accident, where he was taken into custody and brought to Franklin Memorial Hospital to undergo a blood alcohol content test. Clark’s blood alcohol level was more than the legal limit of 0.08, according to the affividavit.
Clark left two female passengers near the scene, with whom police made contact when they arrived. The women said they had stumbled upon Gaboury’s body because they found a shoe in the road. After interviewing the two women, police brought them back to the Colonial Valley Motel, where they were staying.
According to the affidavit, police still at the scene found the women’s stories suspicious and went to the motel, where they found Clark sitting in a car next to the damaged Dodge Dart he had been driving when he allegedy struck Gaboury.
Police were not able to indentify Gaboury on Jan. 1 because she did not have a cellphone or identification on her. On Jan. 2 she was tentatively identified by her parents. She was officially identified by the state medical examiner on Jan. 4.
Clark is scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 26, according to court documents.
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