Marietta man sentenced to 30 years in prison for vehicular homicide

Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady Jr. announced that a Marietta man, Michael David Lauray, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for causing an August 2021 crash that killed one and injured two more, including his then-fiancée.

Lauray, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree vehicular homicide and one count of serious injury by vehicle. Lauray had been indicted by a Cobb County grand jury on seven counts including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, terroristic threats, making false statements, and battery.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert Leonard accepted his guilty plea and handed down the sentence that stemmed from an August 31, 2021, crash on Powder Springs Street in Marietta where Lauray was charged with intentionally causing a crash that killed one woman and critically injured his fiancée during what was described as a domestic violence incident.

According to police, Lauray had been threatening, both verbally and through text messages, to kill his fiancée after an argument. After she refused to meet him Lauray tracked her phone and found her traveling northbound on Powder Springs Street in her Toyota Camry, along with a passenger, 24-year-old Alexus Hickling, according to the DA and Lauray’s warrant. Police say Lauray intentionally crashed his car into the car driven by his fiancée, 25-year-old Carese Wright, which resulted in a crash that killed Wright’s passenger, Alexus Hickling.

Wright was driving a 1994 Toyota Corolla heading north on Powder Springs Street when she was hit from the rear by Lauray. Wright’s vehicle spun counterclockwise into oncoming traffic, where the passenger side of Wright’s Corolla was T-boned by a 2013 Kia Optima driven by Jodie Wasson, of Austell.

Hickling, 24, of College Park was killed. Wright was critically injured with a laceration to her liver and a brain bleed, but survived the crash. Wasson received minor injuries. Lauray left the scene of the crash and failed to call 911. He returned a brief time later, uninjured, and initially gave police false information about what happened. 

Detectives located Lauray’s vehicle after the crash and found damage to the front right of the car, the DA’s office said. After analysis by the Marietta Police Department and GBI, it was determined Lauray’s vehicle was involved in the crash. A search warrant of Lauray’s phone also found the argument he and his fiancée were having prior to the crash and the threats made by Lauray.