Miss. Man Lesser Conviction in Drowning

B R A N D O N, Miss., Oct. 11 -- A man was convicted of a reduced charge ofmanslaughter today for wresting a 7-year-old girl’s life jacketaway from her and leaving her to drown in a Mississippi lake.

Troy Carlisle, 28, told authorities he was trying to save DallasReinhardt when he removed her life jacket to pull her to shore.

But Carlisle also testified that he knew the girl would die.

Kerri Peeples, the child’s mother, screamed as she left thecourthouse, “This is not justice. He murdered my child.”

Carlisle faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence at his Oct. 20sentencing.

A ‘Depraved Heart’ StatuteHe originally was charged under a 130-year-old Mississippi lawcalled “depraved heart murder,” which is filed when someone issuspected of placing another person in imminent danger of death.The charge carried a penalty of life in prison.

Dallas’ body was recovered following a two-day search ofArkabutla Lake in northwest Mississippi.

She, her 4-year-old brother Garrett, her stepfather KennyPeeples and Carlisle had gone fishing on the lake in Peeples’ boaton May 7. The children, wearing life jackets, jumped in the waterfor a swim.

When the two began drifting from the boat in a strong current,the men jumped in to pull them back. Peeples went for Garrett andCarlisle swam to Dallas.

Neither had on a life jacket and Carlisle said he panicked afterswallowing water.

Judging a Drowning ManProsecutors said Dallas would likely have survived had Carlislenot taken the life jacket to save himself.

But defense attorney Jack Jones told jurors it was unreasonableto apply normal standards to the situation.

“How do you judge a drowning man? You can’t do it,” he said.

In a taped interview played to the jury, Carlisle said thechild’s jacket could not support the two of them so he decided totake it off her and wrap it around his arm. He said he then triedto pull her to safety.