DALLAS — A Dallas County judge sentenced a repeat violent offender to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in a 2025 crash that killed an 85-year-old woman.
According to prosecutors, 46-year-old Adam Chauncey Pierce was driving nearly twice the speed limit with a blood alcohol concentration approximately double the legal limit when he crashed on March 13, 2025, killing Bettie Andrews Brown, 85.
The case was prosecuted by Priscilla Pelli following an investigation by the Dallas Police Department.
Prosecutors said Pierce faced an enhanced punishment range of five years to life in prison because of his prior criminal history in Navarro County.
Court records showed Pierce previously received felony probation in 2002 for aggravated assault after threatening another person with a firearm.
While on probation in that case, prosecutors said Pierce shot and killed a man and was later charged with murder. On the day his 2006 murder trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 20-year prison sentence.
According to prosecutors, Pierce served approximately 16 years before being released on parole around 2020.
Authorities also noted Pierce was arrested again in August 2022 for public intoxication after deputies reportedly found him passed out in the driver’s seat of a truck with an open beer early in the morning.
Prosecutors asked the court to impose a life sentence, arguing Pierce posed a continued danger to the public.
On April 10, 2026, Pierce pleaded guilty before Lela Lawrence Mays, who sentenced him to life in prison.
